How young couples managed to meet before the advent of social media
Love island: the love lives of our 19th century ancestors
by Dr Marion McGarry
In recent years, apps have increasingly facilitated online dating, Indeed, thanks to Covid-19, these have become the only way for single people to link up with potential partners. Covid has also meant that large get-togethers in real life are out of bounds. This would have been an unimaginable state-of-affairs to our rural 19th century ancestors, whose courting rituals in their pre-married days happened at mass social gatherings like fairs, pattern days and wakes…
Pliny the Elder’s rescue mission to Herculaneum
by John Martin
Vesuvius Victim Identified as Elite Roman Soldier Sent on Failed Rescue Mission
by Livia Gershon
A new analysis of a man killed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius suggests that he was most likely an elite Roman soldier sent on an unsuccessful mission to rescue refugees from the natural disaster…
Abandoned villages and what remains of them today
by Eric Jones / CC BY-SA 2.0
Where history happened: the villages that disappeared
by Christopher Dyer
Even during a recession, we expect towns and villages to expand. New housing estates are, after all, part of modern life. It is rather depressing, and even shocking, to see dilapidated houses in towns or ruined farmhouses in the country. Yet in earlier centuries, roofless buildings, grass-covered streets and redundant houses were commonplace…
Smell like an Ancient Egyptian
by Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Researchers May Have Recreated Cleopatra’s Perfume Thanks To 2,000-Year-Old Residue [or maybe not]
After centuries’ worth of paintings and sculptures, we have a pretty good idea of what Cleopatra, the storied ruler of ancient Egypt, looked like. But now, we may also know what she smelled like…
And my favourite piece of social media for the month.
This applies to so much more than just the Middle Ages.
Catherine Meyrick 
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My goodness but Cleopatra must have been uncomfortable in that painting. That’s not what I would consider a lounging position at all and it looks rather ungainly.
Interesting reading indeed.
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Yes, my back hurts just looking at it. She looks pretty bored too.
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She does. She must have perked up a bit when Anthony turned up.
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Definitely. Otherwise history might have been quite different.
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Just in case you are interested, here are a couple more abandoned villages from my archives:
https://geotopoi.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/treforys-the-forgotten-village-cwmystradllyn/
https://geotopoi.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/rhiwddolion/
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Thank you. Abandoned places are interesting. Each seems to have its own atmosphere. Some are quite peaceful and others sad.
Not quite the same as villages but the Old Gaol here in Melbourne is grim and has a definite atmosphere. Yet when I visited Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1990, I thought it peaceful despite the history. I don’t know that I would feel the same if I were to visit now though.
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I know what you mean about the atmosphere, Catherine. There are a lot of abandoned slate quarries in this area, some with some interesting industrial relics still left there. I went through a phase of exploring them and some definitely made a certain poignant impression on me, almost a nostalgia for a time I never knew…
Here’s a flavour: https://geotopoi.wordpress.com/tag/dinorwic-quarry/
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The photos in that series are just beautiful.
Being hopelessly parochial but do you know what the Australian connection is? (Australia, Matilda) I did a quick google but couldn’t find anything.
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Sorry, not offhand. The different levels and areas being worked in a quarry were given different names – sometimes after people or different places. There may be some actual connection in this case, or perhaps someone was just having some fun – must have sounded quite exotic for those poor quarry workers (some who would already have walked for miles to get the quarry) having to traipse yet further up a mountain, in all weathers, to get to “Australia”
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Ah, like going to the other side of the world.
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As always, some very interesting reads in this post.
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Thank you. There really are so many interesting bits and pieces out there.
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