How Long Ago Was Ancient?

[Bugbear]

Half my college professors were ancient and to my knowledge not one of them was born before the last Punic war. So, I would have to agree with Jock Scott.

Primary sources.

[Ryan Ross]

Half my college professors were ancient and to my knowledge not one of them was born before the last Punic war.

I almost spit my tea on the screen.

[Detroitpete]

Bug, I must tell you that I always enjoy the way your mind works!

Ancient???? Well if you ask any of the young Highland Athletes I've been around lately, they'll say anything that ocurred when I was a teenager.

[ohiopiper]

So who were the Punics?





Hope you know I'm kidding!

[beloitpiper]

I always learned that ancient (Antiquity) was between 3000 BCE (writing) and 476 CE (Fall of Rome), Middle Ages were 476 -1492 (when the Moors were removed from Spain) and the rest if modern. Also, I've heard (grandiose) theories that the Internet began a new Age in the early 90's...

[Bugbear]

* Changed title spelling after beloitpiper pointed out the mistake .
Here's a link to, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge over at PROJECT GUTENBERG.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/151/151-h/151-h.htm

Sorry, I majored in English.

[Dale-of-Cedars]

Notwithstanding all the good replies above, if you are referring to "Ancient" in reference to the colour palettes in tartans; the Ancient ones are newer than the Modern ones...

[beloitpiper]

Here's a link to, "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge over at PROJECT GUTENBERG.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/151/151-h/151-h.htm

Sorry, I majored in English.

Actually, the title is Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Rime as in "thin coat of ice", not Rhyme as in words that go together.

[Graham]

I LOVE the word "ancient", it's a beautiful word.

"Ancient of Days" - that is as ancient as it gets.

[Salvianus]

Aside from a bicycle I once had, 'ancient' also suggests to me the orthodox Roman and before - Ancient Britons, for example usually including the Iron Age up to the traditional foundation of the English kingdoms - but now I also use it further into the early Historic Period. My special area of interest is the post-Roman transition which is straddled by the Picts, who I think of as 'ancient', up until their eclipse by the spreading Dal Riatan Scots in the 9thC AD.

Some other popular start dates to the Medieval period such as the start of the Roman Catholic revival in 598 AD reflect the more abundant evidence which is from South-Eastern England, the 'Celtic' fringes of the British Isles not being dominated until later. The Norman invasion of 1066 AD is another popular start for the Middle Ages and Malcolm submitted to William the conqueror six years after, but David I only began the serious Normanisation of Scotland after Henry I supported his accession in 1124 AD, paving the way for the Norman families, Balliol, Bruce and Stewart. The 'arrival of the Saxons' began well before the semi-mythical chronicle date of 449AD but the native British kingdom of the Gododdin in Lothian was not subdued by the Angles until the 7thC and British 'Strathclyde' was not overwhelmed by the Scots until the early 11thC. It just doesn't fit neatly.

The already senior Eastern Roman Emperor was virtually unaffected by the technical change of 476 AD, with Byzantines continuing to consider themselves Romans for centuries and I understand archaeology in northern Britain in particular is better served by the idea of a 'long iron age' which reflects the measure of continuity of a culture to the later first millennium AD. The Latin origin of the word as 'what was before', may fit the period before the effective creation of modern England in the early 10thC, and that of modern Scotland in the early 11thC, but I find myself thinking of these events as 'Early Medieval' rather than 'ancient', so I'll stick to the Picts.

[Edit: I might add that the motto I use as my signature 'antiquum obtinens', 'possessing/holding on to that which is ancient' illustrates why the ancient period, referred to as 'Antiquity', is particularly associated with Rome to 476 AD by classicists like Gibbon, 'Late Antiquity' being coined because the Western Empire hadn't been very Roman for a while by then, but many areas continued to be a bit Roman into the 6th-7thC, which is more true of Wales, Brittany and Cornwall.]

Diverting ramble for a Sunday, thanks