THE CARTHAGINIANS and their ancient Mediterranean neighbors as consultants for modern global computer networking? Yep.

You might be forgiven for wondering just what the traditions, techniques and technologies of crafts-people from Ancient Greece who lived between 1500 and 200 BCE could have to do with the development of something so cutting-edge as global ubiquitous computing.

Yet a University of Leicester-led project, working with teams from the Universities of both Exeter and Glasgow in the United Kingdom, has just been awarded UKP £1.75 million from the Leverhulme Trust to investigate just that.

'Tracing Networks: Craft Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond' received the award for its theme of networking. Combining archaeology, archaeological science and computer science to investigate not only ancient cultural networks but to apply that knowledge to modern computer networking concepts.

Looking at these ancient networks across the Mediterranean region, encompassing Greek, Punic and other peoples, the research will focus on crafts-people of the period. It will ask how, and why, their traditions, techniques and technologies changed during that time and managed to cross cultural boundaries.

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Gosh, £1.75 million. Wish I'd thought of that.