In: from Morocco

More than two months time it took for them to arrive, but they did!
Totally intact, two postcards from Eva, cancelled the 11th of March, and delivered in my mailbox today, 21st of May!

The card above is from Volubilis, an ancient city, close to the present city of Meknes. The city expanded and became important in the Roman time, 2nd-3rd century, and these mosaic floors are remains of that era. See how modern (cartoonish even) the picture top left is!



The other postcard shows 'Lharira classique', classic harira soup from Fassia (Fez). On the back side there is the recipe. As a soup lover I really should have a try to make it at home one day :-)



The stamps have been issued in 2015, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 'Marche Verte', the 'Green March'.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

In: from Morocco

One of the many advantages of snail mail is that it brings you so much knowledge! Not only via postage stamps, but for instance also this postcard has me learn new things about ancient times.
The city where I grew up, Nijmegen, had been founded by the Romans circa 2000 years ago. So already since my childhood we became familiar with Roman things (e.g. during school trips we saw Roman objects in the former Museum Kam, nowadays these are in the Valkhof museum). And - also thanks to the Asterix albums :-) - I knew that the Romans have been travelling to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. But new to me, is that the Romans also have been living in present-day Morocco.
Thanks to this postcard, sent by Eva, I learned that they have been living in the area Chellah / Sala Colonia, south of present-day Rabat.
Here you can find ruins of Roman buildings, and also of later - in medieval times - constructed buildings. This card shows two views of Chellah necropolis, and the picture bottom right shows Rabat.

And can you see the storks on top of the tower? Eva wrote that there are about 75 stork nests in this area. Amazing, I think.

On the back side this round stamp, with a matching postmark:



Thank you very much, Eva!

Sunday stamps: archeology: Roman traces

Today's Sunday stamps' theme is 'Archaeology/anthropology'. There are several interesting archaelogic / anthropologic sites in the Netherlands, like the Hunebeds and Roman excavations, but to my surprise postage stamps on this theme are very hard to find.

Besides some 'personal stamps' (issued unofficially for/by companies or private persons) I didn't find any stamp on the hunebeds. These are the oldest preserved buildings in the Netherlands. Over 5000 years ago they have been built, in the east of the Netherlands. Today you can find hunebeds mainly in the province of Drenthe.



After some more research, I discovered that this stamp, which I already have for years, is part of a serie of four, issued in 1977, themed 'archaeology', that is, Roman excavations in the Netherlands.

First I thought it to be just the wall of a canal. But it appears to be part of a Roman bathhouse, of the thermae in Heerlen, in the south of the Netherlands.
There's a design of it on this website, and a photo of the original archaeologic location you can see here.

The other stamps from this serie are:
a face helmet/mask (also to be viewed here),
the goddess Nehalennia,
and the ship of Zwammerdam.

On the internet I found this FDC: