Mainz is cool. So is nearby Bad Kreuznach, or at least its Römerhalle. It's all even better with friends who share a crazy interest in the Roman army

It was already mentioned in AW II-2 (News and letters): the municipality of Millingen a/d Rijn (Netherlands) has conceived of the plan to rebuild a Roman liburna of the 1st/2nd century AD. As one of the very few Roman naval specialists in the country, I was asked to provide academic assistance.

Until yesterday, my experience with Ancient reenactors had been pretty much limited to Early and Late Imperial Romans (luckily Republican Rome seems to slowly gain in interest). Granted, there were two or three Celts or Germans at the Xanten events I visited, but at least they belong in the era.

'Greeks' are still fairly rare on the ground and at present I only know of one group who do anything Hellenistic, the German group Hetairoi (please prove me wrong if there are more out there!). When I saw on their website they were having a practice weekend in sort-of-nearby Cologne, I contacted them to ask if I could come over and have a look. The Hetairoi were kind enough to answer positively and provided us with a map to a quiet field in between two halves of an enormous cemetary.

Having made it over there, the assembled Hetairoi were kind enough to don their kit despite the blazing sun (this 'northener' came home with a proper red neck, of course) and pose for us.

Say what you want about reenactors, but I can't think of anything better to get the look and feel of weapons and equipment. And I can tell you, the look and feel of a sarissa is huuuuge.

I note that my last blog post has been quite some time ago. I assure you, that's not on purpose, it's just that I've been both busy databasing and away from the office.

I decided I wanted to show this ash urn from Chiusi. It's baked clay, dates to the 2nd-1st century BC and it's by far the best preserved, colorwise, that I ever saw. It can be seen at the Louvre, stuck in a corner...

It's been a while since I last blogged I see. Been busy and now it's already deadline time again. We're going flat out finishing up Ancient Warfare II-2 ('Victory and Defeat'). I'll update the website for that issue later, but I'll bring you up to speed first with what I've been up to.

So for the first few days of our annual trip to the US, we stayed at Christy's aunt and uncle in Bolingbrook, IL near Chicago (so thanks again Steve and Anna). Having never been to the city before, we decided to use the two days for visits to a few of the Windy City's many museums.

Time to go to Chicago! Hopefully I'll get to see some Ancient stuff there either in the Art institute or at the Field museum. I'll report as soon as I have internet access again.

One of the items in the regular display at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn was a Roman discharge certificate. Although very interesting, those normally don't catch my attention like this one did.

Today, together with some friends from RAT , I went to Bonn to see two exhibitions, viz. Egypt's Sunken Treasures and War and Peace. Celts, Romans and Germans.

Sadly, photography at the first exhibit was strictly 'verboten'. There wasn't much I would have liked to photograph - Egyptian stuff means 80% religion and cult objects - but there was a nice Chalcidian helmet, some butt-spikes, sling bullets