Posted on 05/15/2007 4:39:17 PM PDT by blam
How Alexander the Great used 'Mother Nature'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 1:45am BST 15/05/2007
Alexander the Great had ''Mother Nature'' on his side when he conquered the island fortress of Tyre in 332 BC, says a study published today.
A bust of Alexander the Great
Tyre, in present day Lebanon, was then a strategic coastal base in the war between the Greeks and the Persians. Now archeologists have at last worked out how Alexander's engineers managed to build a causeway to enable his army to conquer what had become a bastion of resistance. All previous settlements on Alexander's journey from Macedonia had capitulated with little trouble.
The fact that Tyre was an island presented the Greek military commander with a serious headache: how was he to launch an effective attack?
Unable to storm the city, he had blockaded Tyre for seven months, but the defenders stood firm.
Archaeologists have known for some time that Alexander used the debris of the abandoned mainland city to build a causeway 3,000 yards long and up to 180 yards across. Once within reach of the city walls, he used siege engines to batter and finally breach the fortifications.
Over the centuries the silting up of a ‘sandbridge’ has turned the island of Tyre into an isthmus
But building a causeway in deep water would have meant raising the level of the sea floor considerably - an impossible feat in such a short space of time. However, researchers in France who analysed the coastal sediment record for the past 10,000 years have discovered how Alexander's engineers exploited a natural underwater "sandbridge".
The ''sandbridges'' are formed when sediment is deposited rapidly at a spot behind an island.
The findings, which are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, show Alexander used "Mother Nature" to seize the island, said Dr Nick Marriner, of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Aix-en-provence, France. "Of course today engineers have a whole suite of tools available to them in construction, including steel, high-strength concrete and so on," he told The Daily Telegraph. "This was simply not the case during the Iron Age and engineers exploited Tyre's natural environment to serve as the foundations for the sea bridge.
''The causeway would have been built of timber - for which Phoenicia was renowned throughout the ancient world - stone and rubble." The team was able to work out how Tyre was first formed as an island, when sea levels rose around 8,000 years ago. After 6,000 BC, a slowing down of the rises in sea-level and the dissipation of wave energy by Tyre led to the natural growth of a spit of sediment linking the island to the coastline.
Over the centuries the causeway has silted up, transforming the island into an isthmus.
I’d wondered how he’d done it, but had always assumed that there was a natural feature involved. Nebuchadnezzar had a similar problem with Tyre, but uncharacteristically didn’t wind up able to storm it and kill or enslave everyone.
> If we had a general like Alexander the entire Mideast would be a colony of America. At peace.
You had one: George Patton.
Obviously, it’s the fault of Big Oil sending pollution back in time. Duh!
You might want to register complaints with the History channel
:’)
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
That would be a prime site for excavation! Imagine the sort of stuff that was thrown down to fill in the causeway. A mini Pompei.
>> If we had a general like Alexander the entire Mideast would be a colony of America. At peace.
> You had one: George Patton.
I like to think that, somewhere out there in the Iraqi Desert, there sleeps tonite the next George Patton beside his or her Abrams tank. And tonite he/she dreams of his/her chance to earn his/her spurs and take the battle to the enemy: to stop digging in but to keep moving forward, ever forward.
He/she probably has a mouth like a sewer that should never kiss his/her Mom without using Listerine. And the courage of an enraged grizzly bear, with manners to match.
Somewhere out there, in that vast Iraqi or Afghanistani desert, there lives amongst this next Greatest Generation our next George Patton, our next Alexander the Great.
God Bless our Troops.
Yours ‘til Victory.
*DieHard*
Ah, sorry, I’ll add you, also, to the list, my apologies for the duplicate ping!
Alexander died in Babylon. Probably from malaria, but he was still suffering from wounds received in India.
I think the second mole didn’t quite reach the island-city when the city fell. IIRC, the city was stormed by amphibious operation. The mole was used as a base of fire by Alexander’s siege weapons.
No female officers in armor yet (helicopters excepted).
Theres really no way to know. Every source documenting his life and conquest date to at least 200 years after his death. This is also why i find it funny how liberal scholars easily take Alexander at face value, but refuse to accept anything from the gospel.
Roman mosaics uncovered in France
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20070727/106529.shtml
At the heart of the ancient town of Nimes, in Southern France, routine building work has uncovered a unique and fascinating piece of ancient history. The find dates to the era when the town was a principal city of Roman Gaul. What the excavators discovered were two magnificent Roman mosaics.
The Roman mosaics date from the second century A.D. They were located by the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research, at a site where work was underway at an underground parking lot.
The smaller of the two mosaics is among the best-preserved examples in all Roman Gaul.
Jean Yves Breuil, scientific coordinator, said, “There is a first mosaic that is not very well preserved but has an interesting design, with references to Trojan mythology. The second mosaic is frankly exceptional. Because it is very, very well-preserved, the structure of the design is very complex, a mixture of medallions, curves, and the central motif is unique for a mosaic. It shows a battle between the gods and the giants.”
These pieces would have decorated the floor of what must have been one of the grandest houses in the city. And the locations of the mosaics identify their sites as principal reception rooms.
But there’s more: the archaeological work has also revealed a courtyard with a decorative basin and a well.
Now archaeologists undertake the painstaking work of removing the mosaics from their original settings.
“It’s also the case for mosaics that we remove them in a very meticulous manner. They are stuck together, then the mosaic floor is cut into blocks of several metres squared,then we are going to transfer them to museum storage in order to study them and restore them ready to put on public display,” said Jean Yves Breuil.
Thirty five archaeologists have been carrying out a survey of the extensive Roman walls. Slowly they are excavating the remains of the ancient town, already famous for its Roman Amphitheatre. Work began in October 2006.
Thanks Renfield.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.