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George Economides 🇺🇸🇬🇷🇨🇾🇺🇦☦️🥦🥕🍒🍅🍎🍇🫒
@Athens1896
US-Greek, E. Med & Balkan Issues; Work Globally; Navy Sports; Wellness; Aeroponic Technology
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Joined March 2009
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@olyup5 Hope all is well ❤️🩹🙏
A Jewish merchant from Market Street mailed a copy of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. It’s back in Philly. https://t.co/pIKyS79VZz via @phillyinquirer
A remarkable book, the oldest surviving manuscript of Claudius Ptolemy's Geography, was recently brought out of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos and made its debut in Cyprus. It was presented at the exhibition Cyprus Island – History – Memory – Reality, organized by the Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia. The exhibition offers a modern and interactive portrayal of life in Cyprus from ancient times to the present, with a central message about the island's unbreakable unity.
"By focusing on time, place, and people, relationships emerge and narratives are formed that highlight aspects of Cyprus' history and contemporary reality, which have contributed to shaping the unified Cypriot island identity," said Yiannis Toumantzis, director of the Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus and the first Deputy Minister of Culture of Cyprus. He, along with Dimitra Ignatiou, curated this unique exhibition. Interestingly, the original plan was for the exhibition to remain open until June, but due to its immense popularity, it has been extended until early 2026, as predicted by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, during the opening ceremony.
The Vatopedi manuscript, known as Codex 655, consists of 296 parchment leaves, dates back to 13th Century, and is part of a small group of surviving secular manuscripts kept in the libraries of Mount Athos monasteries. Undoubtedly, it is one of the rarest manuscripts stored on the Holy Mountain.
The manuscript includes Ptolemy's Geographical Synopsis, the famous Greek philosopher and naturalist who lived in Alexandria during 127-151 AD, Strabo's Geographica and his Chrestomathy from the Geographical. Many of the texts in the manuscript are copies of other manuscripts, following lost originals.
According to archaeologist Dimitris Liakos from Department of Antiquities of Halkidiki and Mount Athos, "The most impressive and noteworthy element of the manuscript is the maps from 8th book of Geographical Synopsis, each depicting one or more countries from the known world of 2nd Century AD. The first map is of the Oikoumene (the known world), followed by 10 maps of Europe, four of Africa, and twelve of Asia. Of 27 bifolium maps that were originally included in manuscript, 24 are still intact, and three are half-preserved, as they were later detached in various ways." Ptolemy's Geography collected all the geographical knowledge of his time and enriched it with nautical descriptions, offering a relatively accurate portrayal of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Arabian Peninsula. Among these is one of the earliest cartographic depictions of Cyprus, a martyr island.
The Vatopedi manuscript was created between late 13th and early 14th Centuries, and the 42 maps are so meticulously drawn that they allow for identification of mountains, plains, seas, and a vast number of place names. A second, similar manuscript was created in 15th Century for Cardinal Bessarion and is now held at the Marciana Library in Venice.
© The Archaeologist
#archaeohistories
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Hellenic News
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Maria A. Karamitsos
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Greek-American journalist | author | poet | marketing/PR pro. Revising my 1st novel📚. I’m the @WindyCityGreek. 🇬🇷
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A school in Athens Greece
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Read "Greece just banned sunbeds on 251 beaches right before summer" on SmartNews: https://t.co/9VK0K8AjLl #SmartNews
‼️ Πολύ κακή είναι λογικά η κατάσταση στις τάξεις ειδικά της Τουρκικής πολεμικής αεροπορίας, αφού μέσα σε 6 μόλις μήνες ο "2ος πιο ισχυρός στρατός του ΝΑΤΟ" (και καλά) έχει χάσει ένα μεταγωγικό αεροσκάφος C-130 τον Νοέμβριο του 2025, ένα F-16 τον Φεβρουάριο του 2026 και τώρα τον Απρίλιο του 2026 ένα μεταγωγικό ελικόπτερο Chinook.
🇹🇷🇺🇲Το πρόβλημα ξεκίνησε από όταν το 2020 ο πρόεδρος των ΗΠΑ Ντόναλντ Τραμπ επέβαλε τις περίφημες κυρώσεις CAATSA στην Τουρκία, εξαιτίας της αγοράς του Ρωσικού συστήματος αεράμυνας S-400 από την Άγκυρα. Εξαιτίας των κυρώσεων η Τουρκία:
👉 1ον δεν μπορεί να αναβαθμίσει τα υπάρχοντα Αμερικανικά όπλα της π.χ. F-16.
👉 2ον δεν δύναται να αγοράσει νέα π.χ. F-35.
👉 3ον δυσκολεύεται να προμηθευτεί ανταλλακτικά για να συντηρήσει έστω ότι συστήματα διαθέτει.
💀Όλη αυτή η κατάσταση έχει φέρει τρομερές επιπτώσεις για την Τουρκία, αφού από τις πτώσεις των πτητικών της μέσων σε καιρό ειρήνης έχασε σε 6 μήνες 21 στρατιωτικούς (20 στο C-130, 1 στο F-16 και 0 στο Chinook) με κανέναν να μην γνωρίζει πώς άραγε ένας τέτοιος στρατός θα δράσει σε πραγματικό περιβάλλον σύγκρουσης.
@OmarRashonBorja @bluengoldreport @unsatMIDN @ScottStras I attended the first 🥇 Military 🪖 Bowl in DC with Navy playing Wake Forest! Go NAVY!
You are the Joke 🤣
Kevin Willard threatened to make changes to his staff again postgame but was definitely just joking https://t.co/lc00wBxbxC
Someone needs to FIRE 🔥 him!!
Kevin Willard Ready to Fire Staff Mid-Game 😳 https://t.co/J9tloC1mKK
Greece launches an animal airlift to evacuate pets and their owners from the Mideast
https://t.co/7Ca1Ha4zaa
GO NAVY!!
@RomanMemeSquad Th year my father was born in Constantinople. He passed away in 2005. May his memory be Eternal 🙏☦️🇬🇷
@RedditCFB Something needs to change to allow deserving teams to complete in the BIG DANCE 🩰🏀⛹️
David Whippey was an American sailor born in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1802 who went on to become one of the most influential foreign residents in the history of Fiji.
At just fourteen years old, Whippey departed Nantucket in 1816 aboard the whaling ship Hero, beginning a life of adventure that would take him far from home.
He deserted the ship in Peru, setting himself on a path that diverged sharply from the whaling trade that defined so many Nantucket lives.
In 1824, Whippey arrived in the Fijian Islands aboard the brig Calder, under the command of Captain Peter Dillon.
Dillon left Whippey behind on the islands with the task of collecting tortoise shell, intending to return for him, but remarkably failed to come back for thirteen years.
Rather than being stranded helplessly, Whippey adapted and thrived in his new environment, becoming what was known as a beachcomber, a term for white men who settled among Pacific island communities and served as cultural go-betweens.
By 1826, just two years after his arrival, Whippey had earned the prestigious title of Mata ki Bau, meaning envoy to the powerful Fijian tribe of Bau, one of the most dominant political forces in the islands.
He settled in Levuka on the island of Ovalau, which would later become the first colonial capital of Fiji.
Whippey married a local Fijian woman and went on to have at least eleven children with multiple women over the course of his life.
He became a vital mediator between the Fijian people and the growing number of foreign sailors and traders passing through the islands.
His diplomatic and linguistic skills earned him enough trust and respect that in 1846 the United States appointed him as their vice-consul to Fiji.
Whippey served in that diplomatic role until 1856, representing American interests in the islands during a period of growing international attention to the Pacific.
In his later years he turned his attention to agriculture, making the first known attempt at commercial sugar production in Fiji on Wakaya Island in 1862.
He constructed a sugarcane mill on the island, hoping to capitalize on the crop that would eventually become central to Fijian economic life.
The venture ultimately failed because Wakaya Island was too small and poorly suited for large-scale sugarcane cultivation.
Whippey spent the remainder of his life on Wakaya Island and passed away there in 1871 at the age of sixty-nine.
David Whippey's remarkable life had a lasting impact on both Fiji and American diplomatic history, as his role as Mata ki Bau helped stabilize relations between the powerful Bauan Fijians and the increasing flow of foreign traders and sailors during a volatile period of Pacific contact, while his appointment as US vice-consul marked one of the earliest formal American diplomatic presences in the Pacific Islands region. Although his attempt at commercial sugar production on Wakaya Island failed, it foreshadowed the sugar industry that would later transform Fiji's economy, labor force, and ethnic composition, making Whippey an early, if unsuccessful, pioneer of the agricultural enterprise that would define the islands for over a century.
#archaeohistories
New research from Harvard University challenges long-held assumptions about the origins of the ancient Carthaginians. According to a study led by renowned geneticist David Reich, the people of Carthage—one of the most powerful cities of the ancient Mediterranean—were genetically more similar to Greeks than to Phoenicians.
In a report published in Nature and highlighted by The Economist, the research team analyzed DNA from 17 skeletons unearthed in Carthage (modern-day Tunisia), along with 86 others from Carthaginian settlements across North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain. They also included 25 individuals buried at Achziv and Beirut, major Phoenician sites near Tyre in present-day Lebanon.
Although Carthage was founded in 9th Century BC as a Phoenician trading post and colony of Tyre—a major Semitic port city—the genetic data paints a more complex picture. While Carthage developed its own empire and distinct Semitic culture, the study reveals that its population did not share strong genetic ties with the Phoenicians as previously assumed.
Instead, Reich and his team discovered a unique genetic profile they classified as “Carthaginian,” composed predominantly of Greek, North African, and Sicilian ancestry, with only minimal Phoenician genetic input.
The presence of North African and Sicilian DNA is understandable, given Carthage's extensive colonies in those regions. However, the significant Greek genetic influence came as a surprise, particularly since Greeks and Carthaginians were often rivals, especially during their overlapping efforts to colonize Sicily. Their frequent military clashes in that region would suggest separation rather than intermingling.
Even more intriguing is the relative lack of genetic material from Spain and Sardinia, despite both regions having hosted major Carthaginian colonies. This raises the question: did Carthaginian settlers intentionally avoid mixing with local populations, perhaps due to cultural or social biases? The study doesn’t offer a definitive answer, leaving this as one of the enduring mysteries.
Carthage produced some of the most notable figures of the ancient world, including Hannibal, widely regarded as one of history’s greatest military commanders. In 218 BCE, during the Second Punic War, he famously led his army—including African war elephants—across the Alps to invade Roman territory. For 15 years, he ravaged Roman lands but ultimately failed to capture the city itself, retreating to North Africa.
Carthage was eventually destroyed by Rome in 146 BCE at the end of the Punic Wars. However, the Romans later rebuilt the city, transforming it into a major hub of the Roman Empire. It remained a key center until its second destruction during the Muslim conquest in 698 CE.
This groundbreaking genetic study not only reshapes our understanding of Carthaginian heritage but also highlights the intricate web of cultural and genetic exchange in the ancient Mediterranean—where even enemies left a lasting imprint on one another.
📷 : A paper in Nature suggests that the people of Carthage were genetically closer to Greeks than from the founding Phoenician culture. The findings shed light on the forces that shaped the origins of the Carthaginians and the acquisition of their culture.
© The Archaeologist
#archaeohistories
Inside the human body.
From Stephen Biesty's Incredible Body (1992)
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