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The Book Page
My three books for the week:
- Lost To The West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, Lars Brownworth, c. 2009.
- The Vikings: A History, Robert Ferguson, c. 2009.
- And I'm re-reading 1421: The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies, c. 2008.
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The Geology Page
Quick! Fill in the blanks: ____________ __________ is arguably the rarest and most historically important stone in the world. It comes from only one source, a single mountain in Egypt that the Romans called Mons _________________. It is a purple, volcanic stone, very dense and fine-grained, with small white inclusions. Samples were first brought to Emperor Tiberius in Rome who decreed that ________________ _________________ would be for the use of the Imperial family only.
Centuries later Emperor Constantine placed seven huge drums made of _____________ _____________ to hold religious relics at the base of a 30-meter column erected in honor of himself and his new city.
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