05-30-2010, 03:18 PM
Harzhorn in National Geographic, Germany.
Although I established a notification link on "Harzhorn" I ran into more news just before they sent off the notification.
[url:39tvwwf0]http://www.presseportal.de/pm/6926/1621571/gruner_jahr_national_geographic[/url]
[url:39tvwwf0]http://www.ptext.de/pressemitteilung/gefecht-roemern-germanen-detail-rekonstruiert-moderne-technik-hilft-forschern-sc-75370[/url]
I thought that it would be interesting to go to the newsstand and have a look.
(For those as curious as me : [url:39tvwwf0]http://www.nationalgeographic.de/reportagen/die-rache-der-roemer[/url]. A short summary in German and 13 interesting photos-- in general quite a bit better than others that have already been published in the web.)
I decided to buy that magazine.
Having a short overwiew I'd say that it is not the usual 4- or 8-pager rubbish (like e.g. the article in the german newsmagazine >edit: Der Spiegel< on Kalkriese).
First, because the article spans over 24 pages, pics included.
(Also published here: [url:39tvwwf0]http://www.nationalgeographic.de/reportagen/topthemen/2010/fotostrecke-die-schlacht-am-harzhorn[/url])
Second, --as expected, the quality of the pictures included is good to exceptional, especially the 2-pager with the LIDAR-scan of the Harzhorn area.
Not that exceptional, except for their artistic execution, are the map included and and the 2-pager with a painting of the situation.
As for the map:
Its an overview of Germany and the neighbouring areas with the Rine/Danube-frontier and the courses of the Limes highlighted.
Also included arethe ethnological whereabouts of thegermanis and gaulic tribes with some of the main cities/garrisons of the frontier parts of the roman empire. No cities in the area between limes and rhine/danube a depicted. The Saalburg gets a dot.
In germania libera, Kalkriese, Hedemünden and the Harzhorn (of course ?!) have been marked along with 2 locations of major germanic findingplaces (principal burialplaces): Hagenow and Gommern.
I'm still scratching my head a bit over this.
To my choice I would either have included the Sparrenberger Egge at Bielefeld, the camp at Rüthen-Kneblinghausen and the mining complex at Soest as for crucial early imperial finding places.
I would not have included the course of the Odenwald-Limes. (What for ?? This line of defence had been out of order since 160 AD)
Instead I would have include the places of the locations of important weapons' offerings in northern Germany and Denmark.
I also would have included the locations of the Butzbach and Aalen camps as major garrisons along the limes at that time. (Hmmm, ----both still actually garrisoned at that time ??)
Frankfurt-Heddernheim (Nidda/civitas nidensium) would also have got a "honorable mention" as there have been military finds there from that era.
(A paper on the military finds from Nidda which can be attributed to the 2nd and 3rd century AD is awaiting publication, AFAIK)
O.K. then there is the spectaucar painting of a battlefield scene. Really folks, ---did the roman troopers still exclusively use a rectangular scutum those times ??
Now back to the contents:
As opposed to the press-releases ("about 1600 finds"), the main text only mentions "over 1500 predominantely military finds". (Do we have a "press hype here" -- Hello, hello ?! Hollywood on the line ?! :mrgreen: )
Yes, there are fancy catchphrase and stereotypes utilized here, especially on the seond part of the text, where they develop the historical situations that led to the battle -- from the varian times via the times of Mark Aurel and Caracalla and ultimately to the times that followed the battle.
References are given sparsely, a nod towards Herodian here and there, not even mentioning eventual "more in-depth publications" on the subject.
As for news on subjects interesting to members of this forum: yes, they also mention cataphracts being present there, but they do not give any further reference.
The topic of the "hobnails showing the lines of movements" is handled also quite "scroogey":
"The positions of the roman artillery could be derived from the positions of the hit-points of the projectiles --- as well as the movement of the legionaries from the findingplaces of the hobnails lost. The distribution of these having been painstackingly marked on maps by Lönne and her team. That way they could follow the traces for more than 4 km".
Well, I still haven't found any reference at all to where this map has been published. :roll:
But, this nitpicking aside, I nevertheless would give my recommendations to 1) visit the nNational Geographic website and 2) to buy that magazine (June 2010) if you like what you see there -- profound knowledge of the German language nonwithstanding.
(The actual pics in the magazine are w-a-y better than those on the web. :wink: )
Greez
Simplex
Edit 30May2010: Name of newsmagazine added: "DER SPIEGEL"
Although I established a notification link on "Harzhorn" I ran into more news just before they sent off the notification.
[url:39tvwwf0]http://www.presseportal.de/pm/6926/1621571/gruner_jahr_national_geographic[/url]
[url:39tvwwf0]http://www.ptext.de/pressemitteilung/gefecht-roemern-germanen-detail-rekonstruiert-moderne-technik-hilft-forschern-sc-75370[/url]
I thought that it would be interesting to go to the newsstand and have a look.
(For those as curious as me : [url:39tvwwf0]http://www.nationalgeographic.de/reportagen/die-rache-der-roemer[/url]. A short summary in German and 13 interesting photos-- in general quite a bit better than others that have already been published in the web.)
I decided to buy that magazine.
Having a short overwiew I'd say that it is not the usual 4- or 8-pager rubbish (like e.g. the article in the german newsmagazine >edit: Der Spiegel< on Kalkriese).
First, because the article spans over 24 pages, pics included.
(Also published here: [url:39tvwwf0]http://www.nationalgeographic.de/reportagen/topthemen/2010/fotostrecke-die-schlacht-am-harzhorn[/url])
Second, --as expected, the quality of the pictures included is good to exceptional, especially the 2-pager with the LIDAR-scan of the Harzhorn area.
Not that exceptional, except for their artistic execution, are the map included and and the 2-pager with a painting of the situation.
As for the map:
Its an overview of Germany and the neighbouring areas with the Rine/Danube-frontier and the courses of the Limes highlighted.
Also included arethe ethnological whereabouts of thegermanis and gaulic tribes with some of the main cities/garrisons of the frontier parts of the roman empire. No cities in the area between limes and rhine/danube a depicted. The Saalburg gets a dot.
In germania libera, Kalkriese, Hedemünden and the Harzhorn (of course ?!) have been marked along with 2 locations of major germanic findingplaces (principal burialplaces): Hagenow and Gommern.
I'm still scratching my head a bit over this.
To my choice I would either have included the Sparrenberger Egge at Bielefeld, the camp at Rüthen-Kneblinghausen and the mining complex at Soest as for crucial early imperial finding places.
I would not have included the course of the Odenwald-Limes. (What for ?? This line of defence had been out of order since 160 AD)
Instead I would have include the places of the locations of important weapons' offerings in northern Germany and Denmark.
I also would have included the locations of the Butzbach and Aalen camps as major garrisons along the limes at that time. (Hmmm, ----both still actually garrisoned at that time ??)
Frankfurt-Heddernheim (Nidda/civitas nidensium) would also have got a "honorable mention" as there have been military finds there from that era.
(A paper on the military finds from Nidda which can be attributed to the 2nd and 3rd century AD is awaiting publication, AFAIK)
O.K. then there is the spectaucar painting of a battlefield scene. Really folks, ---did the roman troopers still exclusively use a rectangular scutum those times ??
Now back to the contents:
As opposed to the press-releases ("about 1600 finds"), the main text only mentions "over 1500 predominantely military finds". (Do we have a "press hype here" -- Hello, hello ?! Hollywood on the line ?! :mrgreen: )
Yes, there are fancy catchphrase and stereotypes utilized here, especially on the seond part of the text, where they develop the historical situations that led to the battle -- from the varian times via the times of Mark Aurel and Caracalla and ultimately to the times that followed the battle.
References are given sparsely, a nod towards Herodian here and there, not even mentioning eventual "more in-depth publications" on the subject.
As for news on subjects interesting to members of this forum: yes, they also mention cataphracts being present there, but they do not give any further reference.
The topic of the "hobnails showing the lines of movements" is handled also quite "scroogey":
"The positions of the roman artillery could be derived from the positions of the hit-points of the projectiles --- as well as the movement of the legionaries from the findingplaces of the hobnails lost. The distribution of these having been painstackingly marked on maps by Lönne and her team. That way they could follow the traces for more than 4 km".
Well, I still haven't found any reference at all to where this map has been published. :roll:
But, this nitpicking aside, I nevertheless would give my recommendations to 1) visit the nNational Geographic website and 2) to buy that magazine (June 2010) if you like what you see there -- profound knowledge of the German language nonwithstanding.
(The actual pics in the magazine are w-a-y better than those on the web. :wink: )
Greez
Simplex
Edit 30May2010: Name of newsmagazine added: "DER SPIEGEL"
Siggi K.
