For this week's Old and Weathered theme, I decided to visit a site in Clermont that's really old - the archeological dig going on right downtown. Some of you might remember this being featured in the Architecture theme back in May.
So I went over there with my camera to see how things were coming along, and here we are:
All that old stuff is safely stowed away under three or four feet of fill, with a nice asphalt top and a decorative sprinkling of cars. Sometime in the next month, they'll rip it up again and start on the foundations of a whole new block full of buildings.
All that old stuff is safely stowed away under three or four feet of fill, with a nice asphalt top and a decorative sprinkling of cars. Sometime in the next month, they'll rip it up again and start on the foundations of a whole new block full of buildings. So I'm foiled in my idea for this week's post. And it's a shame, in a way, to bury such history, but then I consider the alternative. If you couldn't build where stuff was built before, there wouldn't be any space left. This entire area, the whole country, ok the continent, has been inhabited for millennia. You can't plant a tree without coming across some sign of earlier human activity.
On all three of the different routes to walk home from the summit of our local mountain, the trail follows vestiges of the old Roman road. That's even what it's called where it crosses one of the villages. Roman Road. Not just a name, this is the very road the Romans built when they swept through here in the first century of the common era. They built a temple on the mountain, the Temple of Mercury (whose picture I will post tomorrow because I don't seem to have transferred it to the right drive...), which was meant to figure in the Incongruous theme. There's not just a weather station and military outpost and communications relay topping our mountain, but the ruins of a 1st century roman temple, all elbow to elbow.
Anyway. I do have plenty of pictures of old & weathered stuff. I love that kind of stuff. So for my Friday visitors, here's a link to last month's delightful visit to Culoz.
Sorry, no old or weathered zebra.
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13 comments:
it is amazing at what they can do. and also amazing at how fast places are built and re-built. the landscape is always changing.
hello nanu, my grandma would give me coins that she would find while digging her garden. napoleon, a couple of roman coins, even once a turkish coin - all very very old of course, but she saw nothing extraordinary about it. this was in the middle of england. you're so right about not being able to dig anywhere in europe without digging up history. i love the racing truck!!! steven
oh what a shame to have the ruins covered, I know all the blah, blah about needing our modern parking lots and all, but isn't there another way..
reminds me of ROME - they started the subway and immediately ran into ruins that had to be eveluated for importance before the track could be continued, the subway is slow because it turns and twists around important (don't know why one is more important than another) submerged ruins, some are incased in glass and if you watch out the window you can see different columns and such. Italians are very serious about their history, course they have trouble with the modern world.... can't have it all.
Archaeological digs are so fascinating to me.
Maybe you will have your camera with you when they dig it all up next month? Nah, never mind, I know that's too much to ask. Instead I will imagine those ruins as they once were.
Oh I love the old car!! Wonderful shots! Off to look at the other pics...Sarah
You can't get much more weathered than the old snowed in truck header. Thanks for fighting through it.
Congratulations - you've won an award! Scoot on over to No Telling to pick it up!
Roman road is quite interesting to know. thanks for sharing the history and the photo.
I think it is sad to cover the old ruins, but yes, if we didn't, we'd have run out of space already!
Such a bummer to have your expectations dashed. Progress is bittersweet!
Well they've done a beautiful job of asphalting anyway!
The oldest roads we have in Canada are 400 years old. Their are ancient trails however left by our First Peoples. All those images in your picture will not last 1,000 years, autos, pavement, apartment, fence, but the road will still be there and someone will dig up more relics. A thoughtful post, NanU, thank you.
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