Objects in Articles – October Edition

Welcome to Objects in Articles October Edition! I’ve got quite a mixture of articles in this month’s round up; you’ll even find a video. Objects discussed include lost advertisements, ancient lead pipes, medieval shoes, underwater cities and house parts (that last one probably sounds strange but bear with me). I hope there’s something in there to capture your interest, so let me know which article you delved into!

The October Round-Up

• New Ghostly Attraction in Wynyard
  • You know those times when you stumble across something you thought you’d lost long ago? Well, in Sydney CBD recently, builders knocked down a building on the intersection of George Street and Hunter. The building came down only to reveal a huge painted shop advertisement on the wall of the neighbouring building! This ‘ghost sign’ is something Sydney-siders had forgotten they’d even lost.

• How Medieval People Walked
  • This one is actually a video; a first for Objects in Articles. But given its unexpected subject matter I had to include it! The host of this video presents some really interesting arguments about how people in the medieval period walked. Did they walk heel to toe as we do today? Or was walking toe to heel essential given the limitations of medieval shoes? Worth some more investigation I think!
• House Parts you didn’t know had a Name
  • For those interested in architecture, historic and modern, this article identifies different architectural features that you might see everyday on houses but don’t know what they’re called! Fancy showing off your architectural knowledge when on a walk through your suburb? This article might be one to take a look at!

• Deadly Lead: How Lead Poisoning affected the Roman Empire
  • This article is a teaser looking into whether living with lead pipes impacted the health of ancient Romans. I was surprised to read that research has not been carried out on skeletons from the Roman period to find out about this yet. So, I’m looking forward to hearing the results of the excavations at Vagnari, Italy where archaeologists are currently investigating!
• 10 Ancient Sunken Cities
  • It’s fascinating to think that cities and towns – places where people once lived, laughed, and cried – are now ghostly versions of themselves under the water. So here are some snapshots of significant ancient underwater towns from the old world including Baiae, a Roman resort, and Dunwich, a medieval trading port.