Archive for January, 2008
Vandalism of an African archaeological site
Jan 31st
Vandalism, Lajuad. Photo (cc) Western Sahara Project.
Via the Megalithic Portal comes news of vandalism of rock art. The culprits are soldiers, but in a twist they’re not American. From the graffitti scrawled over the walls of the shelter they’re Russian, Croatian, Kenyan and Egyptian. Along with name and rank the perpetrators also left tags saying which base they were operating from.
I’m slightly frustrated I can’t tell you why these rock shelters are important. That’s because I know so little about this region. After reading the field reports for 2006 I can tell you that some of the art depicts animals that probably haven’t been in the area for 5000 years, so this is prehistoric material. The artefacts and artwork of these people are all we have. In my defence Nick Brooks, who found this graffitti, says that this really is an underexplored area of the world. The finds from here could tell us about how the climate changed and how people adapted to life in their new environment.
Sadly Nick Brooks also reports this isn’t the first time the UN Peacekeepers have damaged archaeological sites in the area. Nor is it a problem with the soldiers. Some of the graffitti quite clearly states the More >
Heritage Lottery Fund Grants 1995-6 to 2006-7
Jan 30th
The figures are adjusted for inflation to 2007-8 values. There have only been four years when there’s been less than £350m equivalent distributed by the HLF, and the 1995-6 figure is balanced by the peak the following year.
Finding out where the money’s going may be difficult. Possibly even a task of Olympic proportions. Data source.
Nine Stones Close
Jan 29th
I visited Nine Stones Close on Harthill Moor this past weekend to experiment with my camera. I was surprised how successful some of the photos were. Initially I used the Aperture Priority setting on the camera, because I wanted plenty of depth of field. The camera was designed by many clever boffins, so I assumed it could do a better job with the shutter speed and exposure than I could. I know Aydin had said to use the Manual setting, but balancing aperture and shutter speed is a complete mystery to me.
I obviously haven’t grasped the basics of the digital revolution. I switched to Manual later on to give it a go and took some awful over and under exposed photos.
What I hadn’t really grasped is that if you set the aperture for the depth of field you want then, with a digital camera, you can home in on the right exposure by trial and error if you have to. Additionally I had the auto-bracket feature on. This was taking a photo slightly above and below the settings I was at, which increased my chances of getting a good photo. (more…)
Wiltshire and its 21st century SMR
Jan 28th
This is how Tom Goskar casually tosses a cat amongst the pigeons…
If you’re interested in the archaeology of the county of Wiltshire, you can now access the Wiltshire Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) online, complete with a map interface.
The SMR is the archaeological record of a county and, as Tom points out, Wiltshire is the county with Stonehenge in it.
Adding the map interface is one of these things which sounds simple, but which hardly anybody offers. I can find my house on a map, but I couldn’t tell you the OS grid reference, nor parse grid references from locations in the record to work out where they lie in relation to me. It doesn’t add any new information to the SMR but changing the interface makes it a lot more accessible. If the SMR databases over all UK counties were opened up then this kind of approach would be a massive help for anyone who’s interested in their local archaeology rather than their local administrative district.
If you don’t know the names of local villages or parishes, or OS references, but are interested in Stonehenge and its surroundings, then Wiltshire Council’s action is a important as any major book the subject.
Unfortunately the map isn’t More >
UFOs versus the Rainbow Serpents
Jan 28th
One of the advantages of tripping to other libraries is that you get to browse journals you’d otherwise miss. One example is the Journal of the Royal Institute for Anthropology, which I wouldn’t see at Leicester. That is a pity because I’m missing some stuff like Close encounters: UFO beliefs in a remote Australian Aboriginal community by Eirik Saethre.
The community Saethre looked at is well qualified for the term ‘remote’. He was conducting research with the Warlpiri, an aboriginal people who live around 300 miles or 500 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in the Tanami Desert. The community he was in was created specifically to provide work for Aboriginals far from Alice Springs. However there is little work there to do, which leads to high unemployment and plenty of time for watching television like the X-Files. At night in this community it’s not uncommon to see UFOs. Saethre reports that he and other kardiya, non-aboriginals, were warned not to drive on their own at night or else they were risking alien abduction.
Saethre says he never saw anything he would regard as a UFO, but most of the people in the settlement were quite adamant about their existence. The age range of More >
Should I knock on the page views by a couple of hundred thousand?
Jan 27th
Coturnix has scooped me on this. I was writing tomorrow’s blog entry. A story I‘ve wrote about earlier here has been picked up by a reporter from BBC Radio 4′s PM programme. A short version went out yesterday, but you can listen to a couple of extended interviews about the Portable Antiquities Scheme at A Blog Around the Clock.
I’m pleased. I think the interviews are interesting and it’s so much easier if someone else does the hard work.
Robin Hood’s Stride
Jan 26th
“A third of a mile SSW the gritstone crag of Robin Hood’s Stride rises jaggedly with two stubby piles of boulders jutting up at either end of its flat top like the head and pricked-up ears of a wrinkled hippopotamus.”
Aubrey Burl. A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. Yale University Press. page 53.
A lost religion written on its victims’ bones
Jan 26th
Tomb #9 at Amara. Photo (cc) Ross Day.
The BBC’s promoting an episode of Timewatch broadcast at 20:10 on 26 January 2008 (and on your iPlayer if you live in the UK shortly after). This one looks like it could be worth watching. It’s news from the Amarna Project and archaeological project with an excellent website. Amarna is one of the most unusual places in Egypt. It was a capital built by Akhenaten who beat off stiff competition to be the strangest pharaoh Egypt ever had. If the ancient Egyptians had has their way, we wouldn’t know about Akhenaten.
Akhenaten was the pharoah who turned his back on the traditional religion of the ancient Egyptians. In place of the whole pantheon he put the Aten, the sun disc. I thought this was move from a polytheistic to a monotheistic religion, but some Egyptologists involuntarily quiver when then hear that. It seems it’s more complicated than that. What can be said was that the Aten was the most important divinity and its worship by Akhenaten, led to root and branch reforms of the state religion.
One of these changes was the move from Thebes and the priesthood of Amun-Re to a new site uncontaminated by More >
Is the role of Government to govern?
Jan 25th
I’ve signed up to the RSS feeds for They Work For You. It seems quite a few people have been taking an interest in the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
It’s useful because it means you can keep track of exchanges like this:
James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative): To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what plans he has for the long-term future of the Portable Antiquities Scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport) The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and so any decisions on its future funding will be taken by the MLA. In recognition of the importance of the scheme, I am very pleased to be able to confirm that the MLA has announced that it intends to maintain current levels of support for the PAS in 2008-09. The MLA will consider options for future funding of the PAS in the context of its priorities for museum collections and public participation.
The PAS is of national importance and the MLA is committed to seeing it thrive and evolve. The MLA will continue to More >
On publication by Press Release
Jan 24th
“Come listen!” Said an aged man, “I have a tale to tell. I shall reveal as best I can, research I’ve done so well. I’ve told the world, I’m sure it will, without a doubt astound. the public who’ll applaud my skill, and great new Thing I’ve found” (more…)
