So today's speaker is Dr. Alejandro Paredo from Neusidad de Murcia in Spain. He is a post-doctoral researcher at that same university. He hails our from Cartagena, which is in the same region, that is, he'll be speaking today. He is a specialist in Roman ceramics. He's in fact here this semester working with me, helping us work out some issues about the fabrics and proveniences of some of the African amperes by which I mean from Libya to Egypt and Algeria and one of the projects that I've been working on for a while. They also see U.N. Jan here who's also worked on with us. He has been fortunate enough to get research appointments in all sorts of interesting places like Exxon-Prolance and in Rome and now here in Berkeley. He has done field work in Spain and North Africa and perhaps other places that I don't know about. I guess you don't have to know all about all of those. Today he's going to be speaking about his, I guess, what's his PhD research effectively, which is examining issues of the urban development of his native city, Cartagena, which is not to be confused with Cartagena and Columbia. Interestingly, of course, it's Roman Carthago Nova as we'll probably talk about, so New Carthage. But Carthage itself is Carthadasht in Munich, which means New City, so it's kind of New New City and I guess that Carthagena and Columbia thus is the New New New City. But he may be going into all that. I don't know. But the issue is interesting because when we're trying to look at aspects of municipal life and the Roman imperial period in many parts of the Roman Empire we enjoy abundant textual evidence and informative inscriptions, which informs quite a bit of municipal structures and personalities and things of that sort. But as we get into the later part of the Roman Empire, a little later part, the epigraphic habit in many places begins to wane and so a lot of the basic grist for your mill becomes less and less abundant, compelling us to shift from an historical archaeology to what becomes, in a sense, a prehistoric archaeology that points to view. And from looking at his abstract, I guess this is sort of one of the themes that Alejandro is going to develop in the top piece that I'm going to give you today, which is going to focus on how he is using Roman ceramics to evaluate these sorts of urban transformations in the city of Carthagena, Spain. So without further ado, I will turn it over to Alejandro for our attention. Thank you so much, Ted. First of all, I wanted to thank the ARF for this wonderful possibility of being here today with you and also to the assistants. I'm very happy to be able to share some of the results of my research with you. I also wanted to publicly thank Professor Ted Peña from the Roman Material Culture Laboratory for his kindness and help during this month, in which I've been visiting scholar here. And I also wanted to apologize for my English, which is still terrible. So in fact, I'm going to do something that I hate when I speak in public, which is to read, but I think it will be better for you and your ears, believe me. So I've prepared for you a very, very visual presentation, and I'm not going to insist too much on methodological aspects. I just want you to understand the work I've done in recent years in Cartagena, which is mainly based on the analysis of material culture of Roman times. So take this last baggy brown talk of the year as a relaxing trip into the archaeology of a city of the Roman Empire. Well, the Roman Cartagonova, nowadays Cartagena, where I was born, is a city located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula in the region of Murcia. It's the same region where Charo, the popular actress, came from, which can give you an idea of why we have this common accent. So Cartagonova is located in the Roman province of Spaniac, Iteria, later Spaniac Taraconensis, in a strategic area very close to North Africa and on the road that links Cadiz and the Atlantic world to the Italian peninsula. Before we start, I'm going to give you some notions about the historical context of the city. Cartagena is officially founded in 227 B.C. by the Punix from Cartage, who called it Cartadas, the new city, and as Ted talked about before, Cartago is the new city, so Cartadas is like a new city, but then in Roman times will be Cartagonova, which is the new, new city. Theologically, it's not very... So it was founded by the family of Hannibal, and if you think on the Second Punic War, it was from here that the elephants go, by foot, to Rome. So the city is conquered by Rome by Scipio Africanus in 209 and will become Cartagonova. And it will begin its period of splendor. During the last centuries of the Republic and the 1st century AD, the city reached its maximum extension and its main public and private buildings were built. But at an undetermined moment from the end of the 1st century and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, a series of problems began to appear. Abandonments, distractions... This is the subject I am going to talk to you about. In the late times, the city will recover thanks to a new provincial reorganization created by Emperor Diocletian and in Byzantine times, it will again have a predominant role in Western Mediterranean. So the territory of Cartagena is dry, desert-like in some areas, and with a rough coastline. So why found a city here? What were the resources of the territory? So basically three. First of all, the lead and silver mines. There are mines of Galena, a rock from which lead and silver are extracted, and they were very important in Punic and Roman times. At the end of the 19th century, they were exploited again, and here you can see on the left side the Roman ingots and the 19th century and 20th century ingots that are practically the same thing. Another essential factor is the harbor. It's one of the best, if not the best, in the Mediterranean. I'm not saying this because I'm from Cartagena, but because it has a large size which allows to host a military and a commercial fleet. In fact, classical authors use harbors in plural. Here you have to imagine the city that stood on that small peninsula. So it has a natural depth, like other ports in the Iberian Levant that need to be dredged. See how ocean liners dock directly even today. So in addition, it is naturally enclosed, protected from the winds by the mountains and by a small island, which is here at the entrance of the bay, Scombreras. This island and its surroundings were also important for the production of salted fish, which will be another of the riches of the city. Scombreras, in fact, take the name of the mackerel, Scombrus, that were fish there. But in addition to salted fish, an important resource will be a spartagras, which is a vegetable fever widely used that will give the city the name of cartagospartaria during late antiquity. It grows naturally throughout the territory and the classical authors tell us that it was very used for strings, for example for the navy, but presents the problem for us that its conservation in the archaeological record is very difficult, obviously. So it was also used for many everyday objects. On the left you have the modern ones and those are Roman guas and sandal, and this is like it's to keep water. They are conserved in the archaeological museum of Cartagena. So all these elements that I have mentioned help to understand the richness of the city, but we are also fortunate that Cartagena is one of the cities most cited by the classical authors between the end of the Republic and the first century AD. So even Polybius visits the city personally, leaving a precise topographical description that archaeology seems to confirm. If we take as reference another description that of Strabo, we can see that it speaks to us about the silver mines, the fish-soulting industry, the walls, the certifications, the lake which is in the north. You have to imagine the city as a little peninsula, it's like San Francisco in fact. So here you have a paleotropographical reconstruction of what the landscape would be like in antiquity, with this lacus in the north. And here is a current map of the city with some of the main archaeological remains. We have the theater, the amphitheater, many domes, the forum area, and here an idealized reconstruction of the city with the harbor and the theater, which is probably the best known Roman building in the city. The theater was built at the end of the 1st century BC by people linked to the exploitation of mines and with links to the imperial house too, families such as the Postumi and the uni. Here you have some main images of the building that has been excavated during 20 years at the end of the 20th century. And the museum was inaugurated in 2008. You have this inscription devoted to the family of Augustus. And another interesting building is the courier which is the seat of the municipal government as if we say the city hall. So among the elements that have helped to interpret it stand out its position in the forum and the design of its pathmen that could have been used to distribute the chairs of the local magistrates. So we also have the Acropolis area and the forum currently under excavation in the center of the city around the hill of El Molinete. It is so-called because there is a molino. Molino is a windmill in the top of the hill. You can see it here. So the results are being very spectacular. Here you see a building that has been defined as the ethereum building, probably a public space linked to a nearby temple. And you can see, for example, how the staircase that goes up to the first floor is still preserved. So here you have a 3D reconstruction of the floor plan of the building. And I show you also several, well, private domes that has been excavated for two Nadomius and still preserved in a little museum. So we reach the second century AD when what Elena Reath called in 1997 the abandonment layers of Cartagena appear. It is a series of abandonment and rubbish dams that were detected in various parts of the city and affected buildings of all kinds, including dwellings and civic spaces. And you could say, well, Alejandro, don't be dramatic. It's normal to find abandoned spaces in the city and that has nothing to do with the dynamism of the city. We can see things like this even in Berkeley today or in San Francisco. Okay, of course, but the problem is that we are not talking about a case or two, but more than 50 in the whole city. So these levels were formed by the collapse of urban structures, especially by the fall of the upper part of buildings or those more fragile structures such as adobe, as you can see here. I don't know if you call it adobe. So you see, for example, this is for two Nadomius. You have the lower part of the building built with stone, which is more resistant to the humidity and the upper part that will collapse. They have a characteristic orange color due to the adobe and they also include a lot of rubbish. So in some cases, these levels can exceed two meters in height. And here is an example of a deposit that completely collapsed a road. Here you have another example where you can see clearly these layers, you know, of abandonment. So the traditional hypothesis considered the possibility of an urban collapse from the end of the 1st century AD without explaining its causes, although it was raised that it could be due to an attack by the Maori Berber tribes from North Africa. So the recession would have lasted a very long period between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. So how to study this period? From the middle of the 1st century AD, epigraphy decays and the references to classical authors disappear. The only possibility was to reanalyze the archaeological record and especially the pottery, which is the most abundant element in it. So for this purpose, I analyzed several excavations, but five sites in particular. I choose two types of buildings, public and private, to see if the same dynamic was observed and I also choose to work on all excavations. So the old excavations are complicated. The information is not always complete, but at the same time, it is a way of rescuing these works from oblivion. You have to know that in Spain, which is like a federal state, each region has the competencies in archaeology since the transition after Franco's death. So in cities like Cartagena, with 3,000 years of history, each excavation means new data, but many are not published and the work that is not published does not exist. So as far as methodology is concerned, I'll give you a few brief notes. I carried out a global analysis taking into account all the pottery categories of fineware, Zamfora, cookingware, and I had quantifications. I know that this may seem very normal to you or even naïve now, but in our case, which we began to develop a more systematic urban archaeology from the 80s, it's something that has not always been done. Last but not least, I worried that the data would be available to the reader so that he could make his own interpretations. So for example, if we are dating, I don't know, this layer on 1st century AD because we have this kind of amphora, and tomorrow we discover that the amphora is not from Spain, but from Algeria, and it's dated from the 4th century. We can correct and reanalyze the information, but it's important that the reader could make this kind of exercise. So the global vision is important because in the case of Roman ceramics, there are productions that have been studied since the end of the 19th century, such as terraced gelata or amphoras, which interested scholars more for their decoration or for having epigraphy. So less eye-catching productions have usually been less studied. The problem of specializing in one kind of pottery, as fine words, arises when we only have, for example, common pottery. So these tombs were dated between the 1st and the 3rd century AD, so over a period of 300 years. But the Empire, of course, was not the same in Augustus' time as it was in the Euclidians. Yes, that's Lincoln's. The United States is not those of Donald Trump. So chronological precision is one of the first things that pottery allowed us to nuance. I developed a typological and archeometrical approach to analyze and characterize this context, reviewing systematically the material. And this is very important. I always get scared when I see publications on Roman pottery in which not a single fragment is drawn. And it is essential to touch the material, and I'll give you three examples, pieces from different layers that come together. A published jar that was actually almost complete, it only had to be reconstructed, or Roman lamps that seemed to have no stem, but were actually marked. These are the same bottoms. So working conditions were very variable. I found it very tidy storehouse, other something less. I could even make new friends. But I think we have all faced a kind of problems in archeology. So let's look at a case of study. The abandonment of this site, adomus in the middle of the urban center, had been dated in the middle of the second century AD from some fine pottery. It's the highest street. But an analysis of all the productions allowed to move the day towards the end of the second century and the beginnings of the third century. So the analysis also made possible to understand the formation of the context, a damp that was formed quickly as shown by the fragments of different levels that stick together. You know that when we are digging in the field, sometimes we distinguish many colors and different textures, and we give a lot of levels, but it's later in the laboratory when we can reorder this information and see if it's a same phenomena or something that was produced just in the same moment. So the same phenomenon happens of the fortune adomus. The majority of the rubbish-damp context is made up of fine and cookingware. I will not give you many specific data, but it is interesting to point out, for example, the small number of amphorae, which are here, which are one of the pieces that most interest us archaeologists in tracing tree growths because they contain full stuff. And on the other hand, the high number of cookingwares from Africa is the middle. It is the 50% of the context. We chose this intense connection with the other shore of the Mediterranean. So by studying all these contexts, we come to have a precise view of the production that we're circulating at that time from dating in periods of two centuries, as the tomes I showed you before. We now date in periods of 25 or 30 years. So the same phenomenon as in previous cases can be found in the Roman theater or the Curia. The political heart of the city is abandoned and turned into a rubbish-damp at the end of the 2nd century AD. So notice how before becoming a garbage-damp, the building is systematically plundered. They tear up the marble and recover all the elements they can. So the pieces that you can see, they couldn't took it because they were under stones, but all the rest is systematically stolen. Even this, I don't know if you... This is an apartment in Opus Segninum and they even stole all the rest to make another constructions. But if we continue, we find another examples with a different chronology and in which the formation of the archaeological record is also different, the excavation of Quartus Santos Street. So this excavation documented a humble drilling from the 3rd century with a small kitchen built in a 1st century AD shop. It's a taberna. So in this case, the pottery context was complete. So that seems to say fragmented, but all the pieces could be reconstructed and presented traces of fire. So this is not obviously a context of abandonment but a destruction one. Here you can see them in detail and they are complete. So once the archaeological evidence had been reviewed, a new map could be made distinguishing between the abandonments at the end of the 2nd century and the destruction layers of the 2nd half of the 3rd century. So with this new data and knowing that this period of recession will not begin at the end of the 1st century AD, an attempt has been made to find an explanation contrasting it with the different historical events of the moment. So if we observe the historical facts with which it is possible to relate this decline of the city, we have the important cessation of meaning activity and political factors such as a civil war between two supporters to occupy the imperial throne, Claudio Albino and Septimius Severo. We know that the province supported Claudio Albino, who lost, and that could have had consequences. There could have been other factors such as the famous Antonin plague of which much has been said, although archeologically it is difficult to prove. But there are elements that we can rule out from this scheme. So for example in this period sources speak of two attacks by the Maori, these Berber tribes of North Africa that would have attacked the coast of Betica and probably Spain, Spain and Taraconensis of course. So there is nothing to draw such a conclusion from archeological evidence. If we look at the transformation of buildings, we do not see any phenomenon that can be related to a violent event. Look for example at the Augusteum. So these missing slabs are not because of the Maori. Take them or one by one, it is the habitants of the city themselves who are retreating into the harbour area and they are who are dismantling the buildings themselves. So more examples, we have more examples in the Fortuna Domius where from the end of the second century the spaces are divided, fire is made directly on the ground and there is a gradual degradation of the building until it is definitely abandoned. So the Atrium building near the Forum is now divided and the Atrium becomes a common courier and each of the large rooms is transformed into a private dwelling. So the evidence of the pottery context are close with all the data. For example, analysis of lead pollution in the bay that demonstrates the cessation of mining activity which drags the rest of the economy. It's around the second century AD. Commercial activity is also declining at this time as seemed to show the shipwrecks that falls from second century to the third one. And also political activity seems totally irrelevant in the city. If we look at the number of senators that the Hispanic provinces brought to Rome in the second century, we have two large groups. So we have Taraco in Hispanic Taraconensis which is the capital and we have Italica which is the city where the Emperor Triand was born and also the family of Emperor Adrian. None is known from Cartagena and that's very surprising. It could be thought that there is a displacement of the population from the city to the countryside but it is not true earlier either so the vast majority of rural establishments were also abandoned at the end of the second century AD. So the interpretation of these evidences is controversial and sometimes implies a conflict with epigraphy. For example, on one hand we have the last inscription from the third century dated in 235 and devoted to Julia Mamea, the mother of Emperor Alexander Severus which has been used to explain the vitality of the city institutions. But on the other hand we have the local Sennate, the Curia, which has become a dump since the end of the second century AD. So another example of this gradual degradation are the roads. Here you have an intervention that I made in the center of the city in which you can see how a white road from the first century AD becomes a narrow dirt road full of rubble in which two cars cannot circulate in the opposite direction. So the occupation of the city is not interrupted. Here you can see how a road is covered with earth and there are still traces of traffic through but under which conditions? So this is important to nuance because sometimes two ambiguous expressions such as transformation are used. And yes, of course everything is constantly transformed like the energy if you want but in this case a recession is observed at all levels. In the case of the third century the situation changes and we find a distraction layer in the second half of the century. Here we can speak for the third century of Heurban crisis. So using the word crisis as defined by Professor Gethal Feldi as a serious moment from which a sick person overcomes or dies. So a crisis is also something punctual. It cannot last a hundred years. So two hypotheses are proposed to explain these distractions in Cartagena. One is that of a possible earthquake. Several city buildings have a major collapse as the Augusteum. Or for example, like the Roman theater here on the left. So these are buildings built with the very powerful structures in Opus quadratum. So their collapse presents a peculiarity. The architectural elements are connected and oriented in the same way. Here you see an example from Bilo-Claudia in the Betica where you see this column affected by an earthquake too. You see the basilica and you see how all the elements are connected. And at the same time, all the faults are oriented in the same direction. You have to know that when an earthquake occurs the seismic wave sweeps the surface in the same direction. It is like the wave that is produced when a stone is thrown into the water. So here you can see the orientation of the faults of the walls in the city of Lorca where it is near from Cartagena where an earthquake happens in 2011.  But if you look carefully at this stratigraphy you could see a lack of previous maintenance. So I have already explained that since the end of the second century there was an abandonment of certain spaces. So this is much more evident in the case of the Augusteum. Here you see this column which is broken and displaced from its base and why it is broken and displaced is because this wall felt sorry and broke and displaced it. But why didn't it tear it down completely?  So before the possible earthquake the building already showed a significant deterioration. But there is another hypothesis. For the second century we have no evidence for an external attack but now it's possible to speak of a raid by barbaric people, the Franks, who we know came down from Germany and plundered Tarragona among other cities as attested by archaeology and great resources. So theories about this type of attack have varied a lot in recent years and as you know the history is like a pendulum and it's also subject to the facts of the present. So here I bring you two images that I like very much taken from the book of World Perkins. We have a barbarian represented before the World War II destroying and killing everything in his path with this red-eyed horse. But notice how this image changes with the construction of the European Union and the integration of the different countries. So barbarians are our friends. They are carrying on weapons but just like an adornment so look how they are happy and they smile to us. And of course they contribute to culturally enrich the empire. So this happy version, if you want, has been adopted to the point of denying any kind of violent action of the part of barbarian groups. Of course the destruction of a building such as the Atrium Building in the second half of the third century may be due to an accidental fire but all options must be considered.  So in any case, whether they're barbarians or an earthquake, we are facing a phenomenon of widespread destruction that affects the entire city. So here is another view of the Atrium Building. In any case, where it is important is not so much the destruction itself but the fact that the city does not have the capacity to rebuild these or other buildings. Even possible items of value will not be recovered. So in conclusion in Cartagonova, the features that would define the late city were already visible in the Severan period in view of the terminus posquem established by the study of numerous pottery contexts. At that moment, the ancient colony suffered a deep recession that affected both its economy and its extension and unicum among the principal cities of Spain. So although its urban decay should not be associated with that of its municipal institutions, their functioning is difficult to assess, particularly when the main representative body, the Curia, had been abandoned since the last decades of the 2nd century AD. Some epigraphic discoveries as the inscription dedicated to Julia Mamea showed the continuity of civil life during this period but do not allow us to speak of urban vitality. There are a number of weighty arguments supporting the city's hypothetical decline. So the abandonment of important public and private spaces as well as of numerous farm in its territory or the sharp drop in its commercial and mining activities. So these changes were exacerbated by a violent phenomenon in the last half of the 3rd century, neither an earthquake nor a fire nor a Frankish ride can be ruled out, which far from bringing about ambiguous transformations led to the re-nation of most of the ancient colony. Leaving aside its nature, these are those episodes where the Cudegas to a situation that had first made itself felt at the end of the 2nd century AD, after which the city showed no signs of recovery like other Hispanic cities suffering episodic crises. The buildings that collapsed at the time were never repaired nor were the household effects buried inside them recuperated. So the urban perimeter of the city will be reduced at this time, marked by the appearance of tomes and will not be recovered until the 18th century. It would not be anted well into late antiquity, especially as from the 5th century AD, when the city reemerged under a different urban model, although without the relevance or size that it had during the high empire period. It had to look like this is some example from North Africa, more or less, in which you can see a new city totally different from the classical one and much more reduced from its original size. And for my part, this is all. If anyone is especially interested, I have some work published in a proper English and even the PhD book which is in the UC library, but in Spanish, unfortunately. So many thanks again and happy holidays to everyone. I hope you understand more or less. So it looks like they were scavenging and recycling the materials through major public buildings. And then you were saying that they shift them to one location, did they reuse these? We found a building where they were stocking the old material. And near Cartagena in Alicante, we have even a shipwreck with reused material. So we have to think in very organized people which is dismantling systemically these buildings. But they weren't using that to rest in the city or I mean there's not that much evidence of that. Yeah, but we have a little evidence but they are not doing public buildings or rich buildings, but we have more things like this for example, this new floor made with pieces of, you know, a column or marble slabs. But for the moment we don't have the evidence of important new building in 4th century or whatever. No, that's a great job. Yeah, thank you. The theater capacity for example, the theater is one of the bigger in Spain. It's between 6,000 and 7,000, more or less. But the problem is that we start thinking that the city, that the first century city, it's really over dimension. So we have the sensation that they built an enormous city but after the meaning of Christ they have no capacity to occupy all the space. So we have many necropolis but with not a lot of terms to calculate or to make demographic studies and we don't know really how many people could be. But because it's true that we see that after the 3rd century the city reduced. If you see, for example, the fires of 3rd century are only concentrated here because after the 2nd half of the 2nd century the city was concentrated between these two hills. But maybe there were more populations in this little space so I don't know, for example, when the Atrium building is divided into 4 houses this is occupied by more people, we don't know it. Is there a sense of where it's going? We have a lot of problems with these fish sauce products because classical authors talk a lot about this but we don't have evidence at least for the 1st centuries of the empire. For little antiquity, yes, we know that they are produced but not from 1st to 3rd century AD. And we don't know why. We are even thinking about another containers in wood maybe or because they did show barrels for sardines and not in Cartagena but in the north of Spain. And classical authors say that Garum from Cartagena is one of the most expensive in the empire so maybe they were in little containers Channel number 5 is not in barrels because it's very expensive so maybe it's, I think it's Tito Livio who said that it cost 1,000 coins of silver for 8 or 9 liters so I don't know but I'm sure they have to produce even if they produce a special very high product they have to have a normal one so a standard production but for the moment we are not able to find it in the archaeological record. And turned into war in Centauré or is the glade being shipped somewhere? The ingots were shipped they worked the material in their mines and we have the ingots in many points of the empire from Algeria to Italy especially to Italy and the Bonifacio street so we know they passed between Sardinia and Cors to reach Rome. I notice you also have a note on the plate the question mark so I'm wondering if you could speak about the possibility of the plate about the what? Sorry? The plate The Antonin plate We know from the sources but this is something that it's well known especially for the oriental side of the empire that there is a plague so there is this kind of disease that provokes a lot of deaths in the empire and it is always cited as a possible element but we don't have tombs or deaths to analyse I don't know to make paleontological studies so yeah it's something that could be considered but for example if we look at chronicles from modern times we see that this kind of lake which is in the north of the city with the mosquitoes every September or every after summer we always have in 16th and 17th century a peak of deaths in the city caused by malaria and this kind of diseases but we don't know if a disease as the Antonin plaque that happened in the middle of the 2nd century could arrive to city as Cartagena it's true that it's a port which is connected with the rest of the Mediterranean it could be but for the moment we don't have any evidence of that Can you speak about what the evidence is and the regional minds for either continuity or decline in the intensity of production of metal in the 3rd century presumably when people are trying to account for this they must consider the role of mining mining is what does the archaeology show? because it generally declines in the 3rd century in Spain but the problem of mining are true so the data we have for the moment is thanks to this kind of analysis of the metal pollution in the bay as I saw before the mining were reactivated at the end of the 19th century so we thought that they were abandoned in Roman times because they were, how you say it they were empty or they were exhausted but in 1833 they find a new filon of metals so they start exploiting it again and they destroy all the Roman evidences so we unfortunately have a few little documents or information from mining activity in fact this kind of objects for example these these were found in mining galleries that they discovered in the 19th century and they are preserved, Cartagena is a very humid climate but in the galleries there are dry conditions and these kind of products were preserved but we almost have nothing about the mining production or the decline what is sure is that the city and the region have more resources so what happens with the other ones so with the spartagras or the fish salting or mining stops there are no other activities that could be exploited the only new wall which is built and we have the evidence is in the 6th century during Byzantine period we have an inscription where we know that he said he was rebuilt so there is a wall very well known from a republican time but we don't know if in the 3rd century effectively when the city reduced we have a new wall we don't know we don't know if the city has the capacity of building a new wall as you see it's very reduced we have a lot of problems we don't have any civic center for the 3rd, 4th and even 5th century and in theory we became new capital after the Euclidians reorganization but where is the governor and all the people who was with the governor and where are all these buildings and these spaces we don't have nothing so one explanation is that the power moves to other cities as for example Eilce with each city very close or even it's the moment in which it starts to move to the center of the country to Toledo who will be the next powerful city in the 5th century and it's still in the same province and we have very very few coins in the city it's really strange so it's for that that pottery is so important because no epigraphy and we have just isolated findings of coins that show us a circulation of people and give us some chronology but we can not even make studies about I don't know military people for example that came or things like that there are no wells for example in the next one not, not just one from the middle of the 3rd century in the Augusteum I think the last coin was from Bolusiano is 251 or something like this but it's a very isolated case it was a very nice presentation thank you I'm astonished by the absolute absence of senators of? senators senators, yeah of course which is a huge contrast with Taraco for example and I assume that if you extend this research to the equities it will be the same thing yes so in which I mean the number of senators and epithets is usually a sign of the landed wells you know the robust the landed areas of the city if you look at the cities of Apple Nancy for example for the 1st century the big ones and epithets and so on the one hand there's none of them none of senators and from your presentation it's clear that it's a highly romanized rich city it's not a huge city for example that's something and from just the ruins so I was wondering how should we account for this conference whether it's very strange at the first we thought maybe they promoted and they just they promoted to Rome or to other centers of power we could think too that maybe it's just that we didn't find the archeological remains or that the new city is a city which is still occupied I don't know that our remains get lost but if you look at little cities in the center as Segobriga this is from 2003 Segobriga is a very little town in the middle of Spain a city as Cartagena and we really don't know how to explain this phenomenon from the republican times we have the most important epigraphical collection of whole Spain and we have a lot of important names even these authors that visited the city the exploitation of the mines were linked with the imperial house even with Agrippa but we don't understand how all these families could just disappear at the end of the second century or the third Is there any evidence for continuity or discontinuity in the use of the harbor? The harbor is still used because it's the entrance not only of Cartagena but of all the province even until Segobriga, Toledo so it's still open but not for example if we saw the excavation of the harbor we have still potteries of this period but not in a massive quantity it's strange for example if you think in Cartagena in medieval times when Granada which is here is conquered by the Catholic kings how do you call it the sarcophage when someone dies the sarcophagus of the Catholic kings which is made in Carrara marble comes from Italy enters by Cartagena and goes until Granada and Cartagena at that time is 5,000 people town so it's like a little village but the harbor is still and we thought that maybe the taxes of the harbor it's one of the elements that allow the city to still be alive the key with us the key with us I didn't put you it's quite big it's very big I'm sorry I didn't put you I should put this not shadow so here you have Cartagena and the next important city you see this river is the Segura river actually so after the Tadda river you have Elce Iliqui which is another important city with a harbor Portus Iliquitanus but Cartagena controls all this territory until here you have modern that should depend on Cartagena so it's a huge territory called the Campus Spartarius for this is part so it's a very important region and this kind of Baetica the Oriental Baetica is like a deserted zone it's the main city in all the region and after the Eoclesian new division of the provinces of the empire in theory we are the capital of the Terraconensis was all of this so after when we became the province of Cartagena will be the capital of all this space so even the Balearian islands depend on us for the justice of this kind of question so Cartagena in theory rule over an enormous territory but it does not correspond with the archaeological reality at least for the end of the second century and the third century okay well thank you thank you so much


of Steamboat, HBCSE's popular science series. Today, we have with us Dr. Shweta Naik, who will uncover the history, context, and complexity of accurate measurement. A little about our speaker, Dr. Shweta Naik is a researcher in mathematics education at the Homi Baba Center for Science Education and believes in teaching mathematics with justice. Her research intends to develop materials for teaching mathematics that take into account the social context, history, and interdisciplinary connections of math ideas. So, warm welcome to you, Shweta, and let's get the session started. Over to you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Aditi. So, hello, everyone, and let me share my screen and take it. So, as Aditi said, I am going to talk about measurements, a topic that is very familiar to all of us. It's also a part of our everyday life. So, basically, what's measurement? Measurement, people will call it as it's counting. They'll say it's something of a continuous quantity, then we compare it with some unit. So, measurement is roughly, if you have to say it's some, it's kind of giving a number to some length or area. We want to give some number to these quantities so that we can do manipulation over those. So, in Hindi, we might say it's just like, I'm, may kuch maap rahi. But measurement also means the action of coming up with some numbers, some units, for the quantities that we want to use. We want to manipulate. And each of us must have measured something. So, people who do cooking, they do a lot of measuring. People who do carpentry, they do very accurate measurements. So, each of us has measured one or the other thing. And you also might have some interesting experiences of measurement. So, when we go through this session, you can also keep those in mind that what were your interesting memories of measurement. So, when we measure, we sometimes measure by comparison. We do use some strategies. But the most common way of measurement right now in today's time is that we have a standardized unit which we repeat and we find the measure. In case of area, we find some measures and then do some manipulations over it and find area in terms of volume also we do that. So, what I'm going to do today because the field is so vast and there is no way that I can cover that in 45 minutes. So, I have created three stories for you around measurement. And I'll tell you these three stories and we'll reflect on it at the end and we'll talk about what sort of things we learned from this. So, the first story is about the standardization of length measurement. So, I've taken an example of length.  You must have some ideas. So, I know you must be thinking that I can measure, people must have measured with their feet, people must have measured with their handspan. So, things like that. So, yes. So, these were sort of measurements like one handspan, one forearm. We could use this for measurement and we have used this for measurement or we could also use one feet, one stride. Even today sometimes for some purposes we do make use of this. In the schools though, in elementary grades, to give an idea of the process of measurement that repeating the unit, students do these kinds of measurement where they'll take some object and then repeat it again and again and measure the other objects using that. But here, the way you say that the pencil is as long as 12 cubes that we used. So, the unit name is used in the, giving the measurement of the object that we measured. So, this is what we, some of you must have done in the school. But why don't we continue measuring like this? Why do we have these units? We could always use one or the other objects, measure any other object. So, the question is about standardization. So, we know that if I measure using my handspan, my handspan and other people's handspan is not going to say. There is something we call as universal, that scientists and many people who work in the industry of construction, manufacturing, have realized their importance that we have to reach to some sort of a universalization where when I say five units of those, it remains same whether I'm sitting in India or I'm sitting in Europe. So, it doesn't depend on my body or any other measures which will differ when I change the place. So, how did we come to this universal idea of unit and how there were attempts in the history to reach some sort of a calibration or standardization that we've seen and this is our part of the first story. So, this is a selected story again. So, there are lots of, lots of scales that you will find in different cultures. So, I have chosen two cultures to talk about which are one of the oldest sort of cultures. So, one is Egyptian, which is almost 4,500 years old culture that has been there. And this scale that you see, it's called as Egyptian Royal Tribute. You can see the year of it. So, I hope everyone knows what BCE means. I have written BC, but the general usage is BCE. It says before Common Era. In your textbook, it might be BC which also means before Christ. This means that if today is 2022, which means we started somewhere, there was some zero year. So, before those years. So, roughly when I said 1,300 years before, so then we are already in 2022 and 1,300 years before, that will be 3,500 years ago. So, this scale that you are seeing is almost 3,500 years old. And you can... So, this is called the Royal Tribute. So, we'll a little bit learn more about this. So, this is a 52.3 centimeter to 52.9 centimeter long scale. It has seven divisions on it and the each division is the make one palm. So, basically this palm is of their king. So, this is again hence some bodily aspect of it. So, this for the palm size that you can see the number three here in this picture is their king's palm size. And the seven of those are repeated to make this scale. And then the each palm is divided into smaller units. So, this is made. It also has some pictures on it. So, this is the Egyptian language in the ancient times that is called logographic. So, basically in that language, what happens is each picture has a meaning as well as it has a place. So, depending on a place and the picture, there is meaning to it. Right now, it is describing some units for measurement that they will use. So, this is called as the scale is still called as the anthropic unit. It's still like a... Yeah, it is still human because there is a connection of human element here because it's the palm of a king. It is an anthropic unit. And the story around it is that because it's a royal unit, it's created only one. But there were other qubits like who were made using wood or other materials. And they're given to the workers who are doing construction work or for example, measuring that high tide or measuring the water level. So, they are also given these qubits but the replicas of it. And every full moon night, they all have to assemble and they have to measure, they have to compare their qubits with this royal qubit. So, royal qubit is kept in the king's palace. It's not accessible to everyone but everyone can come and compare their qubits every full moon day and check whether it has some distortions, it has reduced in length and they have to adjust it to maintain the accuracy. So, this process itself is like, we know it's called calibration. So, this is almost 4,000 years back, they are worried about calibration because they understood the importance of having an exactly same skill when you're doing construction, when you're making things. And they're doing this local kind of calibration here. You can see this Digio step pyramid and there is a historical record that this particular royal qubit is used in this construction of this pyramid. Yeah. So, let's go ahead a little bit. We'll talk about another historical story, another civilization. This is connected to us, it's induced value civilization. This also happened 3,300 BCE, which again means from now on, it's almost 5,000 years, 5,500, 5,000 years, yeah. So, there are a lot of studies that has happened around induced value civilization, like people have studied water in it, people have studied geometry in it, but mostly art and culture and social interactions, different meanings that these construction gives, it's all under study. This site is also spread across different countries. So, the studies has been a bit challenged, but still people are studying many things in it. So, what I'm going to tell you is another sort of a qubit kind of thing here, which is they call ivory scale. So, it's made from ivory and a similar logic. So, there is one scale which is made in ivory and it has, so if you can see that the scale also has one inch, that they call it as induced inch. And this was found in Lothal site, which is in Gujarat, 2004. So, it's dated 2,400, it was found in 1900 recently, but it's dated 2,400 back years. So, this scale is basically has the one inch that they call it as induced inch. It's today's 1.32 inch. So, it is very, very closer to what we have right now. So, their inch is equal to 1.32 inch of today's inch. And the another contribution, which this scale did is the smallest one. Of course, there is some contestation about what is the smallest unit length because different scholars are studying it. And there are different sets have found or evidence have found. So, some say it's 1.6 mm, some say 1.7 mm, some say 0.6 mm. So, this is with the history that people do have different ways of figuring out from the pieces of what they found, but it's valued for, it found the smallest unit. And you can think about it, why having a smallest unit is considered as a good value. Because more, if you can measure the smallest, smallest value, it makes the measurement accurate. And that is why it's valued when it has a smallest sort of a measurement possibility. There are also other scales or counters that they found in, and I'm just showing one picture, but I think if you are interested, you should pursue this interest and find out what sort of other counters of scales in this value civilization had. So, this is one of it where there is no definite understanding of what was this used for measuring. Whether it was a counter, whether it was measurement, whether it was used as a log representing some number. So, there are several theories. Some people say that this is some base three understanding and it was used to represent the number of whatever is there inside that room. So, there will be markers like this to maintain the count. Some say that it is used for telling forecast. And some others have also figured out some ways based on the number of dots that are there. So, maybe you can also do some exercise and think about what this could be used for. So, yeah. So, there is a map in the civilization, which is still mysterious and one can actually spend some time in that. So, for longer time in the history, there were always scales like qubit, like ivory scale. And some cultures developed something for measurement because they all constructed, they all did some structure. And they also figured out ways to calibrate locally. Like, so there is always the element of royal or leader when you go and calibrate your scales. So, this practice was there. But of course, there was no way to have something as a universal. And the recent, even recently, this is a 19-4 story that I'm going to tell you. Even at that time, countries lacked nationalized standardized units. So, this is in pictures from Baltimore fire. It's called as the Big Fire. This is from 1904, 1904, where basically the fire was very big. So, there was the support for fire brigades was called from nearby states as well. And nearby states actually reached with their hoses and everything. But the hydrant that water pipes that were used in Baltimore, they had different hoses units and the hoses that other states brought in, they were on different sides. So, basically there was no standardization, like a national standardized, this is from the USA, story from America. So, different states used different manufacturers, different manufacturers used different units, and it led to something that they can't use each other's even water hose. So, because of this, the fire took much, much bigger form than what it could have been and the losses were very, very high. So, actually this time, there was the definition of meter, one definition of meter, but it was still not popularized and we see this instance. So, let's understand how what, where is like a meter standardization as of today? So, the first definition of meter came in 1793. It was by Science Academy of France. So, you know, when France revolution happened, when the whole royal, so there was a revolution which took over all the royal families and there was also scientists who came forward and push made push for the making use of units, standardized units. So, and the science academies were formed in France. So, they came up with the first definition of meter. So, what they decided was a definition of meter as a one upon one per hour times of the half meter. So, let me just explain what half meter is. Many of you might know. So, this is a picture of like a tracing of Earth. And you can see that these lines, of course these lines does not exist there physically. This is something human thought that for the measurement for angles and for multiple various things. So, Meridian is the shortest distance between the North Pole and the equator. And so, basically what they did is the half distance. This is the half distance, Meridian is the full distance. So, what they basically did is they took the one upon one per hour times of this half Meridian distance and decided it as a meter. But how do you do that? Because you basically do not have any other measurement to even measure the Meridian. And there is no Meridian as in real line which is there. So, what you basically do is you travel and in different places wherever it is possible. Of course, not possible in water, you take estimation. You use some unit to make estimation of these numbers. So, John Baptis and Michen, Peré Michen were assigned to do this work. One was astronomer, one was mathematician. And they took almost seven years to do this work. To figure out key, whether what standardized unit they have thought, whether it fits with the scale of this scale. And after the seven years, they made some entrance. But trans was very proud of their achievement because they defined something as one meter and they have a concrete piece which is placed in the museum, which people can now replicate and use. But of course, this happened in Europe. But this is the first definition of meter. People were still not happy with this definition because there was something called Earthly, something still specific. Because this Meridian distance was taken from Meridian which passes through Paris because this was done by the science academy. So, scientists were still not happy because they wanted some measure as something which is very universal. It's not about any country, it's not about this earth. So that time, there was a research, there were findings about how can we find a light emission from elements, so Maxwell's work. So there was a constant attempt to figure out whether we can use this transmission, transmitted light to define meter as well as second. And then finally, when Mitchell Sen, who is also a Nobel Laureate who figured out that one can use Krypton's wavelength to define, he basically came up with Interferometry, which is a device where you can interfere into the wavelength. So this was a big thing in science and measurement. And people could now measure very, very small distances. It actually opened up a completely different branch in physics. And scientists have spent times in figuring out accurate measurements of very small magnitude. So they use this Krypton's wavelength and one meter is now equal to these many wavelengths of the orange-red emission line in the electromagnetic spectrum of Krypton 86. Krypton 86 is one of the isotope of Krypton. Yeah, I might not be talking here about isotopes, but there are some stable forms of Krypton. So Krypton 86 is one of the most stable forms. So this definition was there and even with this definition, scientists were not happy. And the reason for that was because it's connected to Krypton, it's one specific element, why Krypton, all those kinds of questions. And right now, the meter that we use uses this definition, which was decided in 1980. So it basically depends on the speed of light. So we know speed of light, which is this number<PHONE_NUMBER>. So what they decided that in vacuum, in one second, sorry, in this part of the second, so like a partial of second, which is the speed light. So speed of light is defined as in one second, how long the light travels, which is that distance. So basically, they use that number to say that in that much of second, how much light travels is our speed. And again, calculation of this is again a different, entirely different history and very interesting to figure out from this definition, how did they actually came up with this speed and bar? That's something that you should look for every. But the point of this entire story is that we use this scale in our hand, we use it so often, but so much has gone behind it. So for this definition of one meter, so much of math, so much of science has gone behind it. It has led to many other branches of science and math. And all this is for what? It is for achieving universal accuracy. Achieving accuracy and achieving in a way where it is not dependent on any Raja or any particular person or any particular country, but it's universal, it's for all. So this is also one aspect of mathematics and science where we go from individual to like particular to universal. So, but it takes a lot of effort and energy to reach to that stage. So this is one part of a measurement story that I wanted to tell you. Let's go to the second story. So the second story is about accuracy. So I'm going to tell you something about volume of sphere and mechanics of how Archimedes did it. So all of you must have seen a balance. So before we go to volume of sphere, let's understand another thing that Archimedes did. So we need to understand balance, but then you all must have seen when we buy something at the store, there is a balance. Nowadays there is an electric balance which turns to exact weight, but the traditional balance is where to keep the weight in one pan and then you put things here which balances and then we know that both weights are exactly the same. Yeah, these are some examples of the balance that you'll see either in the market or in your labs. Yeah. So what if I ask you that you have a 3 kg weight and you have a 5 kg weight? Now balance it. In the sense, I'm asking you that put it in pans, such fact they are all, they both are at the same level, they're balanced. Is this really possible? Yeah, so most of you must be thinking that it's not possible because both are different weights.  So the 5 kg is heavier, so it will go down. When you play seesaw, you experience this. So let's try to understand how can we do this? So there is this beam, this I'm going to call as a beam and there are two weights on it, 3 kg and 5 kg. So this will not be balanced like this, but for timing, I'm just using them as a picture. So let's say there are 3 kg weight and 5 kg weight and this is the fulcrum. So fulcrum is something that we are going to... So when you see the balance, what you see in the middle which holds, it's called fulcrum. It's on the top but you can also have fulcrum in the bottom. So instead of asking question that whether we can balance 3 kg and 5 kg, I'm asking you another question. Where do you place this fulcrum, such that 3 kg and 5 kg, both will be at the same level. They're both at the same level, okay? So to decide that, let's do something else. So I distributed 3 kg as 1, 1 kg. I just made 3 kg into 3, 1 kgs. And similarly, I distributed 5 kg into 1, 1 kgs of 5 kgs. Now our question is, where do I place this fulcrum, such that the beam will remain balanced, okay? So I still can't answer. So what do I do? I still don't know where to put it. So what I basically do is, now this 8 kg is equally distributed on this beam, okay? There is a... They're placed equidistant. Each is 1 kg and exactly 1 kg. So now where do you put fulcrum? Yes, so now we must have got a sense. Where do I place the fulcrum? So that will be exactly in the middle of this. So such that there is 4 kg here and then there is 4 kg here. Now we have no doubt that it will be balanced at that place, okay? But our initial question was 3 kg and 5 kg. So let's see how can we do that. So we know that this is 3 kg and we know that this is 5 kg. So I still know that because in the middle weight we'll have the center of mass. So I can put this here and the beam will not move. It will be still the same because this is... If I put this to here, there will be no movement because the center of mass is here. So all this 3 kg weight, the center of mass will be in the middle of it. So I put that and I get 3 kg there. Similarly for 5 kg, I'll do the same. Where will be the center of mass here in the middle? That's right. So basically I put it here and I get 5 kg. Now 3 kg and 5 kg will be balanced. Will be exactly at the same level. But what is different here? So like your balance, the fulcrum is not at the center. So in the balance what happened? It is exactly in the center. It's not. It's basically a little bit near to 5 kg and far from 3 kg. So this is what... This is how Archimedes thought about it. So Archimedes thought that it's... This is called law of liver. He understood that it's not only balancing is about weight and the distance from the fulcrum, where you are balancing. So it's weight 1 times the length is equal to weight 2 times the length. So this is going to remain... This equality is going to be maintained. So more the weight, the fulcrum will be towards that weight. So Archimedes... There are a lot of fun cartoons you'll find around this where Archimedes is saying that you can basically balance anything. If you can find the right liver and if you can find the right distance. And there is like a cartoon picture where he's trying to balance the earth also. So do look for it and try to make sense of that. So this is law of liver. And Archimedes is again... Archimedes is here, 287 BC. Now you know how to make sense of those years. How many years before that has happened. So this is what we learned is called law of liver. Now we'll try to use this in how he figured out the volume of this liver. So what's volume? Okay, so all of you have studied it in the school. You might know some formulas. But what is volume of the concept? So if there is like your milk vessel at home. So how do you find out the volume? So volume is basically how much things you can fill into that vessel. So it's a space occupied which is inside a 3D object. Whereas the area is basically, again region occupied but it's a 2D place. So there is no layer in area. Whereas in volume there is layer. So that's sort of a difference. Let's see how Archimedes found the volume of this liver. So before we begin, I'm just going to tell you what he knew. So what he knew was he knew what is the volume of cylinder that he figured out first. Because there is always help there because you know that with cylinder, the easier part is the surface. The bottom surface is surface. And then the other two things are exactly straight. So you can imagine that it is discrepancy those many times. And then he could find out the volume. So basically if you know this area, pi r square, and you know the height of the disc, then you can repeat it. It's right now it sounds very easy to say that, but during that time and the way the mathematics of it is, which is called integral calculus, is the notation is very challenging. But meaning-wise it's now accessible for us to see that cylinder can be seen as many discs. And then you can basically know that the pi r square is the surface area. And if you just have d1, d2 as different heights, you multiply and you sum, and you know that the basically pi r square multiplied by the height, which is d. That is going to be the volume of cylinder. Then there was also realization that if you take the cone of the same diameter like this to be, then if you fill this cone with water or sand and try to fill in the cylinder, the three of the cones will fit into cylinder. So which also tells us that the volume of cone is going to be the 1 third of volume of cylinder. So this information was there. So now what's the volume of sphere? So there is another way, yeah. There is another way to look at this problem and maybe we'll come to it later, but let's see how I'll come to this part. Okay. So I'm going to show you first what he proved and then how he proved. So he proved that on a beam, on a beam, on one side, he put this cylinder, which is a diameter 2d, radius d, is exactly equal. You have to assume this as a solid field with same density material. Was balanced with cone and the sphere where cone has the same radius as cylinder, but sphere has the half radius as the cylinder and cone. So this is what he proved. So what does this mean? What does this prove mean? That volume of this equal to volume of this cone plus volume of this sphere. So now, if you know this relationship, this is what he proved. The volume of sphere is now, how can you find? Volume of cylinder minus volume of the cone. Okay, this is what you can do. So let's see the mechanism in which he did. So I'll show you some, I'll show you a video. So, yeah, let's see. Can you see the screen now? Yeah, let me play from the beginning. So just see this. So there is our cylinder, there is our cone and there is our sphere. And you can see the diameters are, so radius is D here for cylinder and cone and D by two for sphere. So let's see what he did. Okay. See, you have to understand that these are all solid objects. So it's not physically possible to place them on top of each other. So this is a sort of a thought experiment and it's a very intelligent thought experiment. So see how he imagines that he basically puts sphere inside the cone and cone inside the cylinder. So this is the first thing that he's imagined. What if I did this? Okay. So this is the first thing. And now you understand why we have taken sphere also the D by two radius. So he imagined that these objects are kept together. He already knows the relationship of sphere, cone and cylinder. So he knows the possibility. Now he takes the disk surface. Okay. And he thinks that how each disk will be balanced and he knows law of limit. So the question for him is where to put the fulcrum. Because we can now balance any weight. You know that we can balance any weight with any weight if we know the right place for the fulcrum and if we have a right limit. So he basically puts first disk and puts the first disk of sphere and first disk of cone. And similarly he places each and every disk like that and what is the end product is sorry. So let's see this again. I'm not able to show you the end product. So we'll see in the picture. I'll show you the static picture of picture. Okay. So let's see the picture. So this is what he does first. He has imagined it this way. And then he's going to take the slides of it. So this figure is... I'm not going into the mathematics of it but just briefly when you take a slide. So this is the cylinder. Then this is sphere and this is cone. So when you take a slide basically what every time what you can figure out is what is the volume of that slide. Each disk because when I cut it here I get one disk from cylinder. I can find out its volume. I get one disk from cone. I can find out its volume. And I get one disk from sphere. So every time, so there is some mathematics, some geometry you'll have to prove about the size but you can find it. And then this is some equations about how can one find out using the formula of area and then multiplying it by the thickness and density which is same for all three of them. Those things are assumed. And when I cut the disk the thickness is assumed same and its densities are also the same. So basically what you do is you start placing it and you realize you have to place the cylinders disks like this which comes up to fulcrum. So the first disk you have put it as a height D. So this is the mechanics of what you used. It's very interesting mathematics. And whenever you get time try to read more about this. But the point of this story is that it's not, there is no assumption, there is no rough measure for sphere. Because you know cylinder, you know cone. And now you can just try some other things that will tell you what would be the volume of sphere. But this is an accurate measure of sphere because what you are showing is using mathematics you're showing it's exactly equal to cylinder minus cone. So what you find is accurate measure. So there have been this very fascinating stories about finding accurate formulas, accurate measurements. This is another aspect of measurement. Set this, of course this story, this particular story is very interesting. It was not found much earlier. It was found recently. This Archimedes-Heathard of finding volume of sphere was written on some papers and in ancient times paper was not very easily available. So they were often reused. So I think in 1960s this paper was found as reused in some writing, some poems in one of the church. And it came, one mathematician encountered it and then historian, the mathematician encountered it and then he removed the writing and traced what was the original writing and he found this method of finding the volume of sphere. So that this story is also fascinating from the point of view of accessing history. So yes, so the thing is, so said this, we said there is a push for standardization. We said that there is a push for accuracy and said this and the third story is about how sometimes we use the units. So I'm going to tell you the story from Shabnam. So Shabnam is a school student and she helps her parents after her school hours. They do a lot of different works in leather and textile industry. So they make the wallets and purse and she helps them in that. So this is basically, what you're seeing is the cuttings of the purse for sticking leather on it. She also does some collar work, so making standard collars. This is bag making, she also participates in that. She also does this very work. The rework is where you make some patterns and things done a lot. And these patterns are very symmetric. So there is a lot of other mathematics is also going on. So there is a math of using material on it, like you can see these binbies on it. So they have to figure out how many binbies to use, how to place them, but they also have to constantly figure out other geometry like symmetry and things like that. And they use measurements and other sense of measurements while doing that, like which is called spatial geometry. So what I found was two strategies that Shabham used in her work. One is comparison and another is estimation. So she does this, this is called Lutton, which is used in the Zari work to stick to the clothes or saree or even for some purse. So what she does is she makes a standard Lutton for her, which she makes from the jewellery, so Tali tropes it. She uses the jewellery, she applies wax to it. So it's kind of making it safe unit. And then she uses that standard as a way to make other patterns. It's very common sensible, you will think. It saves time for her and it also maintains the accuracy because she has made it once, careful measurement. She has waxed it. It's not going to change it, not going to move it. So it's something that she's trying to achieve accuracy, accuracy at the same time when she's trying to save time. This is another example where she uses something called pharma in leather bags. So it includes several measurements in the first place, but she makes one pharma, maybe it came from the word form. And then she uses that to make leather bags. There's also the use of sequin. This is Dindi's sequin, it's called sequin and she has to use them in the Zari work. But there is a specific amount that she has to use for per object. She can't just be luxurious because she's using it to make profit. So she can't luxurious means it. She has to be standardized about it. So what she did was she took her piece full of sequin and she measured it once in grams. How many grams of that? And then every time she doesn't have to make it. It's roughly, there is some roughness, there is some estimation about it. But it's also that she has measured it. So she's also keeping track of some accuracy in it. So it's like the in-between of accuracy and estimation. Then other thing she did is that you know that people use with their fingers and hands all the time. But what she does is that she measures her fingers and hands and she has written some measures on it. Using the standardized scales, like a centimeter scale or meter scale say, she has measured her hand and some distances that she can often use to maintain the symmetry. So every time she doesn't have to go to sleep. And she, so she's using body units, but this is different than what we saw in the Egyptian Royal period. It was in the unit was defined using King's hand where the here Shabnam's hand is defined using the universal unit. So the direction is reversed now. Okay. So basically Shabnam learned some standardized units in her school and she uses that along with her work unit and makes something called composite unit. And this composite unit is an efficient unit because it maintains accuracy and it also saves her time and increases efficacy of material using efficiently, like without wastage. Because every, if you measure more time using a balance, you're going, it's a more process. Whereas you know the measurement of your fistful or whatever comes in your book, then it's a little bit saving material. Yeah. So the point I tried to make today was in measurement, I, we saw three things. We saw standardization, we saw accuracy and we saw how it is used. So this is sort of a three perspectives of measurement, which is there. There is like immense efforts and science that is going on to make measurements using ourselves. These immense efforts are going on in mechanics, figuring out things to maintain accuracy. But then when we use it, then there is this social context that comes into play. And the social context is not only that there is, this is humanly used, but the context of profit and loss, context of sustainability and how do I make the efficient use of the material and that also impacts the base of measurement. This is like a three story part that I told you about measurement. And I want you to think more on these lines, find out other histories around things and see how people have historically come to units and what is the practice of those. Lastly, just to say a few words about educators in the group is that NCF does call for making connections between real life and the school curriculum. And measurement is one of the prime topic that you can actually do that. So asking students to create some hybrid units, composite units, asking students to ways to improve accuracy, asking students to way to be comfortable with social aspects, social context and what should be. So for example, if you want to measure something, you can't remove. So for example, I want to measure an exact measure of some mountain. You don't remove everything from the mountain. So you have to coexist with the world and the complexity and still find the accurate measurements. And the measurement, for example, even the measurement of population, for example, you have to coexist. So there are a lot of complexities, pandemic, illness, birth rate. And we try to find measurements making use of, making consideration of all these complexity. So this is what I think in the school curriculum, this complexities of real life could be brought in. Then a very, very dry and standardized way of thinking about it. This is something is five meter and we measure. So learning to measure is one thing. But learning to measure in reality with all the complexities is something would connect real life and school life. So yeah, I'll stop here. These are some of the links in which I'm connected. I also do work. And if you can take screenshot of this, you can find more resources at each of this link. I want to thank each and every one of you for watching this video. I hope it has given you some thoughts to think about. Of course, this session is part of the Steamboat series, as Aditi told you in the beginning. And I thank the entire team for giving me guidance on the teachers and students who always work with me. The drawings were made by my colleague, Malosh Nair. And the animation was made by my colleague, Subramaniam and Malosh Nair. So the last pictures that you saw were also part of one of my colleague and now his work is in another place. From his work, PhD work, I think number six. So thank you, everyone. And over to you, Aditi. Hi, Shweta. That was a very interesting session. And we just want to inform all our viewers that we have already had this session in Marathi. So please do go check out our YouTube channel. Shweta, I think we have time for just a question or two which came up during the conversations with students in the Marathi session. So I thought we could just discuss that briefly here. The first thing is, we talked about these hybrid units. If you could just elaborate on that a bit, that why did we say that Shabnam used hybrid units? Thank you so much, Aditi. Yes. So right now, the hybrid world is not unfamiliar to all of us because of the online and offline media. You have seen the hybrid media is like that you use, some of them are online, some of them are offline. So hybrid in Shabnam's case is very interesting because she has, because she goes to school, she has access to the standardized units. But for, we saw this history of almost 4,500, since 4,500 years that humans were motivated towards using this body units. You all also said that we will use this hand span or my feet. So it was always there in us as human beings to measure using our body parts. There are even cultures who count using body parts. So coming up with body parts, it was like a tendency that humans had and they measured the world for many, many years using body parts and creating some units that are dependent on. What Novel Shabnam did is, she used this standardized units, this speed of light definition of meter-valent scale. She uses that definition and she imposes that on her body units. So now it's a hybrid unit which uses the body part which is convenient for me to use like this. But I know the exact measurement of this in centimeters or millimeters because she also uses the, so she sort of is a, according to me, she's a scientist who sort of created this fusion of human tendency to the, another human tendency of reaching the universal unit and combine the two for reaching the hybrid unit. Yeah. Does that make sense, Aditi? Yeah, definitely. And I think it also sort of brings to life the last point that you were making in the talk about the relevance of mathematics in real life, like doing mathematics in real life. So that was really interesting. And I hope all viewers have enjoyed this session like I have. And we'd also like to let all of you know that we have our steamboat sessions on every second Sunday of the month. So do, you know, do join us for our future sessions and we'll call this an end now and we wish you all a good day and we look forward to interacting with all of you for our next steamboat session which is due on 13th of March. So till then, bye-bye. Bye. Thank you, Aditi and thanks everyone for watching. For teachers, please do send this video to your students and get their opinion about the points that are made for you. Thank you.


Hello, this is the Open Minded Thinker Show. I sincerely appreciate your time today. Well, it's a very great time again, and it's all about the U.S. soldiers converted to Islam. The U.S. is a diverse country, a country that harbors a lot of other religion, apart from Christianity. You know, Islam is one of those religion that people who are in the military profess. But the quantum scale of the people might be limited. So, that's the reason why, oftentimes people would say that the U.S. military cannot be said or it's inaccurate to say that U.S. military, our soldiers are becoming Muslims en masse. But all the same, there are reasons why people chose to become a part of a particular religion. Or it has to do with the experiences over time. Or, I think, personal belief and conviction. For example, people who are deployed in Muslim-majority countries, especially in Southeast Asia or the Middle East, would actually have this contact with the local culture and decide to be part of the religion. Many of the soldiers that have become apparently Muslims had all that to point to ask a possible trigger to their decision to become Muslims. But today, we want to know why are there increasing number of soldiers, American soldiers, who are converted to Islam? What is really going on that we have to answer that? Okay, let's watch this video. I'll be right back. Hello everyone. I'm C.J. Werleman. Don't forget to click the subscribe button below and we kindly ask you please help keep our show going and growing by supporting my journalism at patreon.com slash cjwerleman. Now let's get into it. In a moment, we will reveal why more American soldiers are converting to Islam. But I want to set this episode up with some important historical context, specifically in relation to the history of military warfare. You see, when Western historians talk about the greatest military leaders of all time, they point to Napoleon, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great, because these figures align with European-centric versions of history. But when you speak to modern-day military leaders and strategists, however, they will invoke a name most people in the Western world have never heard of. Khalid ibn al-Walid, a 7th-century warrior whose accomplishments placed him among the three greatest military records of all time. Having led the Arab Muslim army in victory in more than 50 battles with one dozen of them being described as decisive or pivotal in the rise of Islamic religion. Khalid ibn al-Walid. Al-Walid was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the Islamic Empire's most capable military commanders. His leadership united Arabia under a single leader for the first time in history. He's known for commanding the forces of the Rashidin army under Muhammad and his successors of the Rashidin caliphate. It's rumored that he fought in over 100 conflicts and skirmishes, but he's best remembered for 14 significant battles in which he remained undefeated against the Byzantine Empire and the Sassan inversions and helped spread Islam to the greater Middle East. But what's most fascinating about Khalid is he once hated and killed Muslims and in fact fought alongside the pagan Meccans against Prophet Muhammad's Muslims during the famous Battle of the Trench in the year 625. Two years later however, Khalid switches sides and converts to Islam and he would lead the Muslim army to unifying Arabia for the first time in human history, a feat that neither the Romans, Persians, nor Ethiopians were able to accomplish. Admittedly, I only learned about Khalid recently after a supporter on Patreon sent me his biography. But now I encourage every non-Muslim to learn about the life and times of Khalid al-Wailid. Anyway, his biography got me thinking. It got me thinking about my career covering a so-called war on terror as a journalist. And it got me thinking about the many interviews I have conducted with victims of the US torture program in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and the American military personnel who watched over them. It makes me remember a guy named Terry Hobrooks. He became a Muslim in 2008. Six years after he joined the US military to exact misplace vengeance against Muslims for 9-11. We flew to ground zero so we could see ground zero that day. It was the last thing we saw of America before we left was ground zero.  He was deployed to Guantanamo Bay where the worst kinds of torture were inflicted upon more than 500 innocent Muslims who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or 9-11. But it was here that he found Islam. And obviously as time has shown we've sent 550 of them home now so they weren't guilty to begin with. They were always smiling. There must be something in your faith or in your life that's lacking in mine because I'm here and I'm not smiling every day but you are, that's amazing. What do you have that I don't? You see, the thing about Islamophobia is it's rooted in unfamiliarity and geographical distance. But simply, we are easily made afraid of things we have no personal experience with. So when the warrantier had gone under way it was easy for the US government and media to whip up fear about the Muslim world. Given the overwhelming majority of Americans don't even know a solitary Muslim person. This was certainly the case for Miles, a former US Marine who converted to Islam after serving two tours in Afghanistan.  Well, people fear what they don't know. The majority of Americans don't have Muslim friends. They don't know anything about Ramadhan or Noruz or praying five times a day or whatever. What Americans see is in the news, is in the CNN.  Islam makes up a billion people in the world, all right.  Before I continue with this, I would love to art to these Americans. And listen to me, if it's not about Americans, you know, watching just the CNN or the BBC or whatever, you know, I think it all, you know, trickles down to Americans not willing. This curriculum in America, of course, most of you understand that teaches history, history is part of the curriculum. So an average American reads about American history, American civil war, the founding of America. Those who founded America founded it on the value of Christianity, to be honest. When America existed as a country, as, I mean, a democratic country at that time, fought over the British and from it and country started to thrive. People still regarded their leaders in Germany as the Holy Roman Emperor.  Americans have history in the curriculum in school. They study this history. What they do not have is the history of Islam in the curriculum. And they're not, no, we're not trying to read it. It's a matter of not something, not being their business. They believe, oh, Islam is not really the business. There's no need to study Islam. And there's no need to read about Islam. The only time Islam came to the mainstream was when the 9-11 crisis happened. There are literally dozens, more likely hundreds of stories about American soldiers converting to Islam after being sent to Afghanistan. Echoing the conversion story of the great Islamic warrior Khalid al-Waleed.  So then I ended up joining the military. And once I joined the military, I was in the US Army for a number of years and ended up deploying to Afghanistan to where I kind of learned a lot more about the culture of a Muslim. Didn't really dive into the Quran at all, but really learned what a Muslim was all about, their general lifestyle, at least out in the parts of Kandahar Afghanistan.  Definitely gave me a different view than what I had seen here in the West when it comes to different news channels and different things that are thought and stereotypes of Muslims. So learned that they were not exactly what I was taught. Okay, so what stands out from this testimony is the word peace. So let's think about that for a moment. He was sent to a Muslim country by an invading military force to kill what he had been told were threatening and violent locals, but only to discover they lived peacefully and in accordance with their religious faith, while his country was invading and bombing countries all around the world. It's this realization that has drawn so many current and former American servicemen and women to Islam. The very religion had been convinced the United States was at war against, like this U.S. Marine Sergeant who converted to Islam while serving in Iraq. Sean Blackwell is a former Sergeant in the U.S. Army. In May 2003, a few months after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he was on guard duty outside the health ministry in Baghdad. A young Iraqi woman approached him. She was looking for work. They got to talking. So I was like, hey, do you have a girlfriend? Doesn't mean like I want it to be a girlfriend or anything. I was just curious. And he said, no, but if I'm going to be marrying some, I'll be marrying you. They kept meeting. Three months later, they decided to get married. Sean converted to Islam against his commander's wishes. Converting to Islam while fighting a war against a Muslim population on behalf of your imperialistic government is a paradox that could not be more stunning. When Islam rightfully claims to be the religion of peace, then these conversion stories must count as its best advertisement. But if you're looking for a story that will literally knock you down in amazement, then the story about Richard McKinney, a former U.S. Marine who served in Somalia and Afghanistan, promises to leave you speechless. You see, he was so radicalized by anti-Muslim hate that he planned to bomb an Islamic center in Indiana. I had devised a plan, create my own IED, homemade bomb, and I was going to set it off right outside the Monty Islamic Center. 200 plus killed or injured, that was the plan. I saw an opportunity to do one last thing for my country. This was my rationale. I knew I would end up in a federal prison with a needle in my arm.  It was the only thing that was keeping me alive. But a moment he shared with his young daughter made him rethink his plan. So we decided to give the local Muslim community one chance to prove that Islam isn't the violent religion he had been led to believe. So we visited a mosque he intended to bomb. So I went to the Islamic Center, see a gentleman in the shoe room taking off his shoes. He looks at me and he smiles. He said, can I help you? And I said, yeah, I want you to teach me about Islam. So he went and he gave me a crumb. Read this, come back when you have questions. So I did. And I would see things in the book. I'd be like, there it is. I got him right there. He's playing that to me. And they would. This was a kind of awakening. Long story short, eight weeks after that first day I stepped into the Islamic Center, I became a Muslim. Now here comes the kicker. Three years after converting to Islam, he became the president of the very same Islamic Center he had planned to attack in 2009. Now if you're thinking I've cherry-picked a few select stories to paint a broader picture, then you'd be wrong. The internet is literally filled with similar convert stories and across multiple nationalities. You'll find British soldiers, Australian soldiers, and French soldiers converting to Islam during and after their deployments to Muslim lands. We have to be very careful when we react to videos like this because we have to be careful so that we do not pass out to be like people who are not facing reality. People who are not facing reality. People who are adverse to the reality on ground. We understand that there are some Muslims who misinterpret the Quran and behave in a very unsavory way, to be honest. I recall that I read the news yesterday that a mob in Pakistan sent someone ablaze because he was accused of blasphemy. The same thing happened in Africa where a lady was accused of blasphemy and she was immediately. Some of these guys that do this are people who really believe that Islam is a peaceful religion, a very quiet religion, they shouldn't. So why don't they allow authorities or laws to take the real cause? When somebody does something or accuses of something, a group of mob will come together and then set the person ablaze and kill him or kill her. It's apparently not charitable to just conclude that the criticism of Islam has no place here. It's the ordinary people in Islam, the normal people, Muslims. Most times these guys are divided members of Islam that really have Islam very close to their heart. At the end of the day, they act accordingly.