Love this blend of camp cinema and folkloric archeology. The observation about Romans as meticulous record-keepers rather than originators of garlic's apotropaic properties is sharp, since most ancient beliefs survive only through whoever bothred to write them down. That note about Thraco-Dacian origins makes sense given how intensly localized vampire lore is to teh Balkans. Hammer movies might be hokey but they preserved sometihng.
Thank you! I love the topic, glad I made it a little entertaining, at least. I always wonder when some midden dig in Gaul or Spain or the artist formerly known as Dacia will show us the Romans were standing on the shoulders of others. Very excited about what those carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum will eventually tell us....
Love this blend of camp cinema and folkloric archeology. The observation about Romans as meticulous record-keepers rather than originators of garlic's apotropaic properties is sharp, since most ancient beliefs survive only through whoever bothred to write them down. That note about Thraco-Dacian origins makes sense given how intensly localized vampire lore is to teh Balkans. Hammer movies might be hokey but they preserved sometihng.
Thank you! I love the topic, glad I made it a little entertaining, at least. I always wonder when some midden dig in Gaul or Spain or the artist formerly known as Dacia will show us the Romans were standing on the shoulders of others. Very excited about what those carbonized scrolls from Herculaneum will eventually tell us....