Classical Numismatics Discussion
  Welcome Guest. Please login or register. 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Expert Authentication - Accurate Descriptions - Reasonable Prices - Coins From Under $10 To Museum Quality Rarities Welcome Guest. Please login or register. 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Support Our Efforts To Serve The Classical Numismatics Community - Shop At Forum Ancient Coins

New & Reduced


Author Topic: Goggle Maps and Italy  (Read 5964 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

basemetal

  • Guest
Goggle Maps and Italy
« on: June 02, 2006, 10:21:08 pm »
Has anyone used Google Maps with the perspective of ancient rome?

As an educational tool it is invaluable.
For instance, Google Maps will impress upon you just how volcanic the past of Italy is/was.
I'd never seen the country that way.
You can just "take a flight" over the area of Rome or Naples down to 3 meteres or in some place 1 metre I believe and view the countryside.  It's amazing how many ruins you will find as well as impressions of (possibly) ancient roman structures in plowed fields.
You can view the ancient port of Ostia which is now about 2 miles inland and from the height perspective see the outlines of the ancient harbor around Trajans harbor and to the southeast the actual city of Ostia itself.
The maps section of the application is very well and complete for Italy, so you can get a good idea of where you are. Also don't miss the occasional airliner in flight captured incidentally!
Also many areas of the world on Google maps are blank in the map not the sattelite mode.
MapLink or maplink.com will help here.
As an aside, places like Leptis Magna(sp?) are very well documented and you can see the ruins as it were for "free".

AncientCoins

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2006, 10:51:52 pm »
I have used it, and I zoomed in on the Coliseum  :laugh:  Google Earth is an amazing program, I love it.

Andrew

peterpil19

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2006, 10:25:28 am »
Has anyone used Google Maps with the perspective of ancient rome?

I've used it from the perspective of Ancient Greece. Problem is, the cities are covered, but not all the villages which are scattered all over the country-side. Can't seem to remember if it covers all  the islands. Without a doubt it will cover major islands like Crete.

My father's village in Lakonia has a byzantine castle which is one of three (everyone knows the one at Monemvasia) that used to communicate with one another via smoke signals. It would have been nice to see their respective locations in Google Maps but alas...

--Peter
--Peter

Offline slokind

  • Tribuna Plebis Perpetua
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 6654
  • Art is an experimental science
    • An Art Historian's Numismatics Studies
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2006, 03:46:56 pm »
It is too long since I read Kevin Phillips on the Castles of the Morea.  I went to Passava.  Which one is yours?  Pat L.

peterpil19

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2006, 01:04:52 am »
Sorry for the late reply Slokind, just saw your post.

The castle is in the town of Geraki. Here is a webpage relating to it: http://www.culture.gr/2/21/212/21205a/e212ea03.html

When I visited early last year, I took lots of pictures, I'll make sure to post them in a gallery somewhere. There are byzantine churches/chapels that are still amazingly intact.

--Peter

Offline slokind

  • Tribuna Plebis Perpetua
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 6654
  • Art is an experimental science
    • An Art Historian's Numismatics Studies
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2006, 03:40:50 am »
Thank you!  I look forward to seeing your own photos.  Actually, I have been to the Tigani in Mani, too, not that the presence there of a castle is certain, as well as Monemvasia and Mistra.  My interest in Middle Byzantine took me all over the western side of the Mani peninsula while I still had hiking legs and stamina for it: kalderimia are not for the elderly, though many of them had been paved over by the last time I was there.  I was a little shocked to see that many of the southern Mani villages today, such as Gardenitsa,  are only used as vacation places by families who now live in Athens.  Well, in 1960 Gerolimena had a perfectly good demotic school and for gymnasio the kids went to live during the week with other families where the secondary schools existed.  They were bright kids, as bright as Greece produces, so it is no suprise that so many of them are doctors and lawyers and dentists and so on today.  Pat L.
P.S. Why do only the rather old and the quite young put their age in the personal info?

peterpil19

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2006, 10:21:38 am »
The only pictures of the castle I can find right now are the one's I took from my cousin's balcony from afar. I've cropped the picture but unfortunately there is not much to see. I have pictures from within the castle, including pictures of the frescos inside the various chapels, and when I find them, I'll add them to an ablum here.

In the meantime, I've attached some pictures of other byzantine churches/chapels from our town. Next, I'll add some pictures I took of the archaelogical dig where Dutch archaelogists are uncovering an acropolis.

Monemvasia and Mystras are quite beautiful, I'm sure you'll agree Slokind! I found out the hard way that they both require a great deal of hiking and a great number of steps to climb...

--Peter

peterpil19

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2006, 10:24:01 am »
Some more....

About the age thing, I've often wondered that myself, but I respect fellow forum members right to privacy, and I guess it adds an air of mystery...

--Peter

peterpil19

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2006, 10:26:31 am »
Sorry to kill your bandwith guys :evil:

--Peter

Offline slokind

  • Tribuna Plebis Perpetua
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 6654
  • Art is an experimental science
    • An Art Historian's Numismatics Studies
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2006, 03:30:23 pm »
I had to scan off small B&W prints, but here is Ay. Sotiros at Gardenitsa, just up the road from Kitta.  Many of these are family churches, you could say Maniate clan churches, which is why they are so many and so extremely small.  But there was still a priest serving them in 1960; they still were consecrated.  A quarter century (almost) later I came back and found the grandhildren of these women, widows so mavrophoroi, the girls in shorts, sunning where I had photographed the giagiades in 1960.  Also, at that time, in the late 1980s, the church was deteriorating.  Many, I think, now are being restored.  Periplinthitiko construction is inherently weak, so such upkeep is necessary.
Megaw dated the Gardenitsa chuch to the 11th century (article in Annual of the British School at Athens, early 1930s, following a merely exploratory one by Ramsey Traquair in 1909/10 in the same journal.
I promise not to post a bunch of Byzantine churches here, but my trips to sourthern Laconia were among the richest experiences of my life, and just because one is a classicist one ought not to ignore all the rest, or to just leap from Alexander to Mavromichalis!
Thank you!  That is a lovely church, beautifully resotred.  Pat L.
P.S. The women were not just photographed as 'types'; they informed me that they are the descendants of the family and the keepers of the church, and I recorded WHO they are not 'what'.  The adolescents I talked to later, also, were members of the family.

peterpil19

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #10 on: June 08, 2006, 11:38:01 am »
Thank you for the pictures Slokind!

I am glad you enjoyed Lakonia, it really is a wonderful part of Greece and I am proud to have my roots there.  If you ever venture back, you may be shocked by one everpresent change--olive trees have taken over the countryside; olive oiil has become a big business, so that whereever you find space, there's bound to be an olive tree!

The byzantine chapels in Geraki are not used anymore. They have two churches (one of which was built only recently,) to serve the relatively small population.

Also, I forgot to mention, I have somewhere a book on the history of our town Geraki given to me as a present when I visited last year. It is written in Greek, but contains many wondeful pictures of historical interest. I'll try to contact the author about copyright permission, and scan some pages into a gallery, I am sure he'll be happy to oblige. If he doesn't, well, my cousin is the Mayor so I'm sure he can convince him for me. :afro:

Before I forget, here are a couple links re that archaelogical dig I was talking about: http://www.english.uva.nl/news/object.cfm/objectID=F1FBFC74-12DD-45A0-89ADB5938EAA8687/templateid=FE0DF54E-6B27-4970-A943A9A1487C7A87

http://users.hol.gr/~geraki/dutch.htm

--Peter

virtvsprobi

  • Guest
Re: Goggle Maps and Italy
« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2006, 07:13:33 pm »
Why do only the rather old and the quite young put their age in the personal info?

Pat,

Because the Middle Ages are the Dark Ages and we are ashamed of them. ;D

A middlin' agin' G/<

 

All coins are guaranteed for eternity