As the flu continues, I have been playing a hidden object computer game. I quite enjoy them, they are not too demanding and this one was quite interesting - not the best one I have ever done but pretty good and enjoyable. It was set in Ancient Rome.
There are lot of things that the Ancient Romans had that sound surprisingly modern, like central heating. That is common knowledge. Every few seasons a documentary wanders along on TV and reminds us of how advanced our ancestors were. I don't have a problem with that and usually enjoy those programmes. I also find it fascinating to find out what they didn't have - like soap! They rubbed themselves with olive oil and then scraped it off. The stuff from the gladiators fetched quite high prices.
So far so good. I settle down, bear is asleep, OH is in bed, I am snuffling pathetically and start looking for the first item. Hmmm. Had the yin-yang symbol reached Ancient Rome? Obviously silk reached across the great plains of Asia and they had lots of African input as well via Egypt. Hmm. That looked suspiciously like a Tibetan prayer wheel. Not so convinced. Then I spluttered into my cold cure - maize. They want me to look for maize! And the next one along is a chilli. I grumble a bit at this. Now and again there are studies that show that yes, things like cocaine could theoretically, in theory, with the right conditions, etc etc etc, theoretically have made it to Europe before Columbus stumbled into the Americas. I don't want to underestimate our ancestors, after all, brain size is statistically shrinking they could well have been smarter than me just without satnav. On the other hand it is talking about Imperial Rome and the old Roman empire in the West fell in the fifth century and that was about a thousand years before Columbus, give or take.
Then all respect for any historical accuracy fled. They wanted me to look for a boomerang. From Australia. That wasn't even a myth at the time.
After than I just concentrated on playing the game.
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