Adrian J. BoasMay 23 minTransienceIt seems that the most splendid things are those the existence of which is most fleeting. Spring is here and already gone, and there is...
Adrian J. BoasMay 24, 20214 minOn DisappearancesTwo unexplained episodes of people vanishing stand out in the memories in my childhood. One was the disappearance of an Australian Prime...
Adrian J. BoasApr 21, 20212 minOn Rural FootholdsThe narrow dirt track, deeply ridged from the recent rains, passes uncultivated fields and vineyards where the twisted vines are just...
Adrian J. BoasApr 13, 20213 minOn Too Little of a Good ThingAfter failing in numerous attempts at opening an external drive (the tiny white light on the side lit up and flickered like a distant...
Adrian J. BoasApr 1, 20212 minOn Selflessness and GainThe concept of selfless love is a fine one perhaps, but how often is love genuinely selfless? How often do people do purely altruistic...
Adrian J. BoasMar 24, 20213 minOn a Beautiful SurviverStripped of almost all forms of embellishment, the convent church of St Anne has been recompensed for its losses, particularly in the...
Adrian J. BoasMar 17, 20214 minOn a Necessary VulnerabilitySeveral years ago, I obtained a dried lotus flower, and through a bit of research on the internet managed to find out how to geminate the...
Adrian J. BoasMar 10, 20214 minCopy of On Locating the StablesA large part of the appeal of archaeology lies in the fact that one never knows what one is going to uncover. It is perhaps one of the...
Adrian J. BoasMar 10, 20214 minOn Locating the StablesA large part of the appeal of archaeology lies in the fact that one never knows what one is going to uncover. It is perhaps one of the...
Adrian J. BoasFeb 24, 20213 minOn the Unluckiest ManRecent excavations in the city of Pompeii uncovered the skeleton of a man who appeared to have been decapitated by a large stone. He was...
Adrian J. BoasFeb 16, 20213 minOn Ecocide - an Arboreal War Crime“All is fair in love and war” is an aphorism attributed to the sixteenth century English wit, poet and playwright, John Lyly. Basically,...
Adrian J. BoasFeb 8, 20213 minOn Defying GravityWe should be very pleased that there is gravity holding us onto the world. Gravity is essential for the existence of life on the planet,...
Adrian J. BoasFeb 1, 20213 minOn Fact and Fiction. A Novel ExperienceFor those interested in the subject matter of my upcoming book The Sulphur Priest, and without giving too much away and leaving the title...
Adrian J. BoasJan 25, 20213 minOn Short and Fairly Inconsequential ReignsEvery family has its more colourful characters. In mine there is an interesting mix of the illustrious and the dubious, among them...
Adrian J. BoasJan 18, 20211 minA word to my readersI have been writing this blog on crusader related topics for two and a half years, and at no time have written less than two posts a...
Adrian J. BoasJan 14, 20213 minOn a Manifestation of Monastic PovertyPoverty as an ideal is not unique to Christian monasticism. It is found in the teachings of the Stoics such as Seneca and Epictetus and...
Adrian J. BoasJan 10, 20212 minOn the Farming LifeOf the many important contributions Ronnie Ellenblum made in crusading studies, one of the most substantial is his shattering of the old...
Adrian J. BoasJan 7, 20212 minOn a Brilliant MindFor three years in the 1990s I co-directed excavations at the Templar fortress Vadum Iacob (Jacob's Ford), a project initiated and...
Adrian J. BoasJan 6, 20214 minOn Fire and Brimstone - The Uses of Sulphur, Real and ImaginedAmong the objects discovered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art expedition to Montfort Castle in 1926 were a number of pieces of sulphur....
Adrian J. BoasJan 4, 20214 minOn the Return of the NativeRecent history has shown us just how detrimental to wildlife the human presence is. In an extreme example, after the deadly nuclear...