Posts tagged Heritage
Astronomy at Ston̈ehen̈ge for the 2010 Summer Solstice
Jun 18th
I’ve been busy, recently and I’m likely to stay that way for a while, hence the lack of posts. Still, I’m hoping to be able to take a trip to Stonehenge this year to see the solstice. That’s why my prediction is that it will be cold and wet and thick cloud will prevent anything interesting making an appearance. However, if there are clear skies, there could be plenty to see over Stonehenge this solstice.
Natural AstronomyThere’ll be plenty to see in the evening sky after sunset at 9.26pm. To the west Venus will be extremely bright at magnitude -4.0 (the lower the number the brighter something is). When you see it you won’t be able to mistake it for anything else. That will be setting at a quarter to midnight, so there’ll be plenty of time to see it.
Position of the planets at sunset. Click for full size.
Moving to the left, are Mars, Saturn and the Moon. Mars will be magnitude 1.3 so it won’t be the brightest thing in the sky, Arcturus and Vega will be brighter but it’ll still be easy to find. If you’re struggling find the Plough. The two pointer stars that point up to the Pole More >
Bookmarks for 16th of November through to 18th of November
Nov 18th
These are my links for 16th of November through 18th of November:
- The Academic Journal Racket « In the DarkTelescoper explains how academic publishing works. The only thing that would improbe the post would be the theme from 'The Naked Gun' in the background.
- A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’ – NYTimes.comYou can make arguments in favour of repatriation of antiquities. You can make arguements against. Being on either side doesn't make you inherently foolish. But when you write that the British Army took the Rosetta Stone from the French and "returned it to the British Museum" then something has gone wrong. It's probably a case of momentary brainfade rather than idiocy, but it matters because the whole question of ownership of the Rosetta Stone is about where it rightfully belongs. Using the word 'returned' builds in the assumption that all antiquities are inherently British.
- Notes & Queries; Sledges – Theoretical Structural ArchaeologyGeoff Carter concluded he didn't have evidence for a staggeringly early cart shed in Poland. Could it have been a used to house a sledge? I've just realised I know absolutely nothing at all about the history of sleds and sledges. Not only that, but I can't recall much attention More >
Bookmarks for 12th of November through to 14th of November
Nov 16th
These are my links for 12th of November through 14th of November:
- Is the new policy statement PPS 15 a threat to heritage? – Building DesignI'd love to have a pithy and insightful opinion on this, but first I'll have to look up what PPS 15 says. it's important as PPG 15 and 16 have been the basis of protection of heritage in the UK for many years.
- Pagans for Archaeology: Why reburial won’t workIt's all very well me saying there are ethical reasons to be against reburial, but I still haven't found the time to write them down yet. Now this post hits almost every point I was going to make, especially the point about memory. This won't stop me from writing up my thoughts when I can find the time though.
- Identity : Gambler’s HouseTeofilo talks about Chaco and Navajo identity and discovers neither is as simple as you might think.
- 3rd-century building fuels debate over lost country … asahi.com(朝日新聞社)"The central axis of each building forms a straight line. Each building is believed to have faced the same direction. Such careful planning for buildings was common for palaces and temples during the Asuka Period from the late sixth century to the early More >
Will the Okhta Center make or destroy a skyline?
Oct 20th
Work continues into winter on the Okhta Center in St. Petersburg. This is a new commercial centre being built by Gazprom, the Russian natural gas company. When it’s finished the Okhta Center will have all the mod-cons necessary for a major commercial centre like monuments, desks and a large glass tower which will stand around 400m tall looking over St. Petersburg. No one is complaining about the desks and monuments, but there is a controversy about whether a large glass tower is really necessary. The tower will be over twice as high as anything else in the city. St. Petersburg’s current spires are a World Heritage listed site, but UNESCO has threatened to withdraw that listing if the skyscraper is built.
There are archaeological digs at the site, like the one photographed above, but I’m not sure what they’ll find. The centre is built built over part of a 17th century Swedish fort and an earlier 14th century fort. I don’t know how extensive those ruins are or if there’s anything else. One of the reasons for building the city was the Peter I wanted a blank canvas to build a city on at the start of the 18th century. Since More >
Perfectly preserved or recklessly wrecked? Thoughts on space heritage.
Feb 4th
I’ll admit I thought the idea of extra-terrestrial heritage sites was nonsense when I first heard it. A few people have changed my mind, especially the work of Alice Gorman who has made the point that a lot of history could be lost if we think of satellites purely as junk. Now she’s considering what should be on a space heritage list. Greg Fewer has already suggested that a Lunar and Martian sites and monuments record is needed. Alice Gorman is expanding that idea to anywhere off-planet. How do you draw up a list of space heritage sites?
Alice is using a Facebook application and there’s a discussion board to go with it. She mentions two things about her list that are odd. One is that the list is supposed to be a coherent list. There could be gaps in her list which need to be filled. In contrast something like the New 7 Wonders list just needed seven top wonders. There was no overall aim.
The other is she’s very open about the importance of nationalism in the list. Archaeologists can get very worked up about nationalism. Just glancing over to my book shelf I can see a couple of books on the topic, and the More >
Do you need a note from a criminal to prove an artefact is stolen?
Nov 26th
Looks nice, but are looks enough?
This is the death mask of Ka Nefer Nefer. I can tell you she was connected with Rameses II in some way, but not a lot else. It hard to find information about her lie on the web because her death mask is the big story as far as Ka Nefer Nefer goes. Or rather it’s the travels her mask has been on and the dogged determination of the Saint Louis Art Museum to drag its own name through the mud.
The mask was found in 1952 in Saqqara by the Egyptian archaeologist Mohammed Zakaria Goneim, as part of the exacavations of the pyramid of Sekhemkhet. After this events are disputed. In 1998 it was discovered again when the Saint Louis Museum of Art purchased it. They got it from Phoenix Ancient Art, who say it came from an anonymous Swiss collection before them. The Saint Louis Art Museum is further claiming that a Belgian dealer had it back 1952. This would appear to be an object that’s been shuffled around dealers, like yesterday’s amphorae. If you read yesterday’s entry you’ll also remember I said there was going to be a test. Here it is.
You are More >
The smell of corruption?
Nov 20th
The Temple of the Dioscuri, Agrigento.
There’s an interesting story in the Independent today. A gas plant is set to be built about a mile away from the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. The plant itself would be a story, but what makes it special is how the plant was approved despite the archaeological zone being protected by environmental laws. It turns out the temples don’t exist. Going back to the original story in Corriere della Sera:
Il provvedimento, adottato il 28 settembre dal ministro dell’Ambiente (Stefania Prestigiacomo) «di concerto» con il ministro per i Beni culturali (Sandro Bondi), è chiaro: dice che il progetto di un rigassificatore da 8 miliardi di metri cubi l’anno, che l’Enel vuol realizzare nel porticciolo di Porto Empedocle, «non incide su zone speciali tutelate a livello comunitario, in quanto i proposti siti di interesse comunitario più vicini (pSic) distano da 13 a 20 km dall’area di intervento ».
which I get as:
The measure, adopted on the 28th of September 28 by the Minister of Environment (Stefania Prestigiacomo) “in concert” with the Minister for Cultural Heritage (Sandro Bondi), is clear: it says that the plans for a refinery processing 8 billion cubic metres of gas More >
Reconstructing the Buddhas of Bamiyan
Jun 30th
Demolition rubble from the Buddhas. Photo (cc) Tracy Hunter.
In 2001 the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Now there’s a proposal to rebuild them, but can they be rebuilt and should they?
You can find the original TIME story at this site.
When does the Past start?
Jun 27th
People evicted from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and their families are asking for more say in how the past of the site is presented.
Links: The news story @ The Courier-Journal The Official site @ The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area The Friends of LBL @ their website
Making Memory Maps
Jun 5th
Colleen Morgan demonstrates how she can track the past with her phone. Photo (cc) Miss Colleen.
Mbedr is a tool for embedding Flickr photos with notes into other websites. This is not something I would normally bother with and it seems I’d be missing a huge opportunity. Colleen Morgan has realised that if you get a satellite photo, then drawing notes over a photo is an effective way of making an annotated map. An example below is from Miss Colleen and is part of the Remixing El Presido project.
That’s interesting, but by itself it’s a curio rather than something exciting. What is exciting is that Colleen Morgan has really thought about what you can do with Flickr’s features. It’s a beautifully elegant idea. Because above, what you see is a photo, albeit a photo with notes. However because Flickr also allows geographical information to be associated with a photo you can give it a place. Now comes the stroke of genius.
Add in triangulation from GPS or WiFi and suddenly you have a GPS which not only knows where you are but also where the past was too.
Impressing people when you have something shiny and new isn’t too difficult. Taking a lot of publicly available tools More >
