Three Wishes

Life is boring, I never leave my office. So if I’m going to update this thing, you are going to have to satisfied with the abstract.

You are probably wondering where this particular rambling came from. I am currently reading Imperium by Robert Harris (author also of Fatherland & Pompeii). It is the story of one of the great orators of ancient Rome, Cicero. As I started to doze off though I reverted to one of my oldest daydreams (or night dreams in this case), if I had three wishes… Unfortunately, I don’t think I would be charitable enough to ask for world peace. Rather, they would be:

1. The Gift of Language: to be able to understand and speak all languages – you know the equivalent of having a Babel Fish in your ear (towel optional).

2. Gift of Time Travel: (Tardis please…): What did Homo erectus really look like? Ancient Egypt? Pompeii? The Coliseum?

3. Finally, invisibility. Not that I want to sneak around on anyone here, but If you are going to travel in time, the 21st century women might find a bit of trouble not sticking out like a sore thumb in 3000 B.C. not to mention become lunch for some overly aggressive leopard on the African savanna.

Of course all of these things are categorically impossible, but that’s the whole reason I became an archaeologist in the first place.