Undecodable Symbols/Emoticons

[Swatopluk]

My first impression was that he either sits in front of the TV or is dealing with a large parcel.
But the position of the right hand indeeds gives a more PC impression

[Griffin NoName]

Did the ancient Greek drive on the right or left hand side of the road?

[The Meromorph]

We shall never know...

Those of them that could write, and left accounts, were embroiled in a theoretical discussion of which side they should drive on, which they never resolved, and so refused to drive at all.
Those that did drive, never wrote it down.

[Griffin NoName]

But.............surely the archaeological record can reveal the truth?

[Sibling DavidH]

I can tell you where today's Greeks drive: where the hell they like.  Frequently sideways.

I've seen wheel ruts in e.g.Pompeii and freshly-exposed ones near here, at a dig where the road from Magnis ran to the Wye.  But which way were they driving?

Here's me in 2005 digging on the Via Stabiana in Pompeii.  Despite some damage to the road, and the old tourist-entry ramp, you can clearly see well-formed wheel ruts to the right.  No clue as to which way they were heading. 

[Swatopluk]

Most roads were single lane anyway.
In more modern times this is hell of a trick question about Austria. The country switched several times between left and right and usually not all of the country at the same time. (Iirc) At at least one time all of the country drove on one side except for Vienna.
I noticed that while watching old news reels from WW1 where I at times suspected that some reels had been put in the wrong way because of the inconistency in driving left or right. I later checked and found the above explanation (and the reels were from different parts of the country as could be clearly deduced from the intertitles).

[Griffin NoName]

Most roads were single lane anyway.

But were all the vehicles single seaters?  

(poor Austrians, I couldn't cope with that).

[Swatopluk]

Serves them right. Unfortunately it did not reduce their population in any significant way (and nobody ran over that 'unknown corporal of the world war'). On the other hand, Churchill almost got killed when visiting the US and forgetting for a moment that the USians drove on the other side of the road.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Serves them right. Unfortunately it did not reduce their population in any significant way (and nobody ran over that 'unknown corporal of the world war'). On the other hand, Churchill almost got killed when visiting the US and forgetting for a moment that the USians drove on the other side of the road.

Now why does that not surprise me to discover Churchill did not utilize a driver, but insisted on driving himself?

[Swatopluk]

Actually he tried to cross a road on foot and looked into the wrong direction

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Why did Churchill crossed the road?

[Black Bart]

Talking of Pompeii my wife and I have always wanted to visit the site.  There was an excellent documentary on the beeb this week focusing on the real lives of the people who died at Pompeii.  Having seen the sort of x rated paintings and phallic symbols the Romans have adorned their walls with I think we might have to leave the kids at home!  Franky Howard got it absolutely right. 

Toe sucking was nothing!!!

[Swatopluk]

Hey, I attended a Pompeji slide-show just this Thursday.

[Sibling DavidH]

Talking of Pompeii my wife and I have always wanted to visit the site.

I saw that program with Mary Beard.  Excellent.

You just have to see Pompeii.  In January 05 we got a visit from an old American friend whose son is an archaeologist and I showed him around some famous sites round here.  In return we got an invitation to do a bit of labouring on a dig he was on in Pompeii. We paid and arranged our own hotel, etc. of course.  It was 38º in the shade, and the dig was not shaded.  Therefore I did very little work; even though I was much thinner then, my ME was already troubling me.  So most days we just watched and learned.  On that day we agreed to do some preliminary clearance on the  Via Stabiana just inside the Porta.  The feeling of contact with Roman life was wonderful - I've never had that so strongly on a dig before.

BTW guess what those road stones are made of.  Yup ... it's lava from Vesuvius, though squillions of years old.

[Swatopluk]

Looks like one should visit sooner rather than later since the Italian state seems unwilling to spend enough money to maintain even the status quo. The gladiatorial school recently  tumbled down for lack of maintenance.