2013 So Far....

Well January has nearly ended, I don't know about you, but I can't quite believe this yet.  I had so many blog plans for this month, but, the month seems to have disappeared before I even got around to thinking about them!

So far I have had a flying visit to Dublin and London, where archaeology and museum studies benefited greatly and I was able to spend time at the National Museum of Ireland and the British Museum respectively.  The latter was a purely work related visit and hopefully, after assessment I will be able to share the article with you all...it might even spark some healthy debate.  I will review both museums over the next few days.

I think we need a bit of reshaping, so I will be working on presenting you all with a new look blog too!

Hope the New Year has started well for you all, I've certainly hit the ground running...hopefully it will all pay off!

Let us Raise a Glass

Well here we are at the end of 2012, what a year it has been.  Thankfully the world didn't end so I can once again thank my readers for continually reading my musings, you really are amazing and we have passed the 4000 views marker!  Something I never dreamt would happen when I started writing.  Blog technology tells me that the Advent Calender posts were successful and the amount of hits it registered was amazing...with this in mind 2013 will have artefact of the month as a regular feature.  I of course want to make this blog as good as I can and to do it I would love feedback from my viewers.  The Thanet research will continue and I hope to add some other bits and bobs along the way...deciding what is the hard part.

Thank you again for sticking with me and let us raise a glass to 2012's archaeological achievements and the adventures that 2013 may bring.

Twas The Night Before Christmas...

As a Christmas Eve treat we have a particular favourite of mine



Image taken from the British Museum

it is of course the Ringlemere Cup, discovered in Ringlemere, Sandwich, Kent.  This Bronze Age cup dates to around 1700-1500BC and is made from sheet metal.  Before damage it would have formed an S shaped vessel, with a rounded bottom; making use rather difficult.  It has a corrugated top and a single handle; the second of its' type in Britain, but one of only 5 known in Europe.  On discovery it was identified through the Portable Antiquities Scheme and has since been declared as Treasure, through the Treasures act; with the finder and land owner splitting the money paid by The British Museum for its' acquisition.

Since discovery a full excavation has taken place around the findspot and a barrow was located by Canterbury Archaeological Trust.  On my last visit Dover Museum had a beautiful display, in the gallery adjacent to the Dover Boat, in relation to the cup.  There is now a replica of the cup in position as the original is in the Prehistory Galleries of The British Museum, but, it is still well worth a look if you are in or around the area.  The cup has been on many journeys since its' discovery in 2001, it made a brief tour of Britain and even made a stop off in Wales! It also found its way in 2006/2007 back home to Kent, where I feel it belongs.

It is often suggested that the cup was placed in the barrow as part of a burial, subsequently the modern plough has taken its' toll and the cup is clearly damaged.  During the excavation CAT found no trace of a burial and as such new theories have emerged; the most popular alluding to a votive deposition.  Hoards and Barrows are well known within Kent, particularly to the East of the county, with my knowledge (unsurprisingly) being related to the lovely Thanet (often seen in the Bronze Age as the Isle of the Dead!).  It therefore seems a plausible notion.  The excavation revealed several Iron Age and Saxon burials in and around the original barrow, thus showing that the area remained a significant one.

Due to the damage visualising the cup in all its' glory can be tricky so I shall leave you with this...

A British Museum Reconstruction

That brings us to the end of our Advent Calender for 2012, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

I'm going to take the opportunity to thank you all for reading and I hope each and every one of you have a very Merry Christmas!

Small yet Mighty

Today we are exploring Germany, the Vogelherd Cave to be precise.  The cave is located in the picturesque Lone Valley and has yielded some astonishing Upper Palaeolithic art.

Image taken from www.ice-age-art.de

This beautiful horse is approximately 32,000 years old and has been carved from mammoth tusk.  Over the years the layers of ivory have started to flake and unfortunately the legs have broken.  The horse is tiny, measuring only c.5cm long and c.2.5cm high, yet it is clear that its' carver was skilled in the art form.  The purpose of the carving is unknown, but the polished finish suggests that it was intended to be displayed.  The horse is thought to be a stallion due to the curved neck, however, such positioning also suggests that the horse was not best pleased and the legs are likely to have assisted the viewer in identifying this.  Despite being small it is most definitely mighty, it is certain to leave an impression with any visitor to the Museum Schloss Hohentübingen, Tübingen (Germany), where it currently is housed.  This is thought to be the oldest known portable horse depiction and was kept company by several other animal carvings, mainly in ivory, but some were stone.  The cave is thought to be a safe area where food was processed and consumed; the presence of such material culture suggests to me that it provided semi-permanent shelter for a group when hunting in the area.  I think that this artefact needs no theories, what it was made for does not seem important, its' creation alone is remarkable.

Family Fun

Well it's the season for family gatherings and with it comes the dreaded game of Monopoly, so here we have...

Image taken from the BBC

a Roman gaming board.  Well a fragment of one, discovered in bonnie Scotland.  It is thought that the board was originally 15 squares by 8, with each player having 15 counters and a king.  The game was called 'Ludus Lutrunculi' and we think it worked a little bit like chess or checkers. 

I didn't pick this artefact to tell you all about Roman games, instead I picked it to show a different side to those rotten Romans!  They are always seen as an invading force, imposing their customs on those around them.  We spend much of our time studying the impact they had on such societies, particularly in terms of military involvement.  We see them as building military centres, basing soldiers in areas where they were experiencing unrest and disruption to their overall plans.  One of their lasting legacies in Britain is Hadrian's Wall, still in situ it is a popular tourist attraction now, but, it has not always been that way; it was once a means of keeping away the unwanted and declaring the lands they classed as their own.  Despite this harsh and physical barrier a gaming board found it's way into Scotland.  This game shows the human side of the Romans, identifying that despite being seen as a military machine, they were people.  They were social, miles from home and on the whole very few of them are likely to be truly Roman.

So when the bickering starts on Christmas Day about who won, who cheated, which rules to follow, you can take some comfort in the fact it has been happening since the Roman Period!

The Final Countdown?

Well it is December 21st 2012 and the World is thankfully still turning...so did the Maya get it wrong?  Well lets investigate....

First things first, what does it look like? 

Traditionally we expect to see something a little bit like this



Image taken from the Daily Mail

But the Maya also used their pyramids to help them along, so calenders could also look a bit like this

Image taken from How Stuff Works

So how does it all work?

Well we have days, months, years, counts and cycles to get our heads around so we will go with a step by step approach and hopefully you will still be with me at the end!

The lowest unit is a kin or 1 day and 20 kin make 1 uinal or 1 month...with me so far?  Each uinal is based on the movements of the moon making the Maya calender lunar focused.

18 uinal is equal to 1 tun which is 360 kin, after the 20th kin of the 18th uinal there are 5 days left over, these are known as wayeb.  These days are particularly important as they are free days, meaning all gods are able to access the world, even those of the underworld.  This means that all fires must be put out and the Maya community almost becomes one of mourning; fires must be put out, no food can be consumed if it has been cooked and there are even rules about washing and brushing hair.  To break these rituals is to invite the gods of the underworld into your life and bring upon bad luck; to be born in these days is considered a terrible curse and your life would be filled with misery.

20 tun is equal to 1 katun and 20 katun is equal to 1 baktun which is about 394 years.  Still with me? This continues up to 1 alatun which is equal to about 63 million years, so what does this mean for the end of the world?  Well considering the calender only started on August 6th 3114BC with the beginning of the Maya world, we have a while left yet!!

So what about these counts and cycles?

First we have the Tzolkin cycle, this is known as the divine calender and is needed to make sure all religious activity occurs at the right time.  It consists of 260 days or kin each with a number from 1-13 and one of 20 Maya names.  The cycle starts again after reaching the 260th day.

Then we have the Haab cycle, this is where the uinal and the tun come into things.  This calender is solar based, providing the 360 'normal' days and the 5 days of wayeb or 'free' days, full of bad luck.  Unlike we do in our calender the Maya did not take the quarter days into consideration.  The original uinal were named according to seasonal processes, which was logical until the quarter days were left out...then eventually the uinal names were a little more abstract.  After the Haab cycle has been completed 52 times, it is judged to be the end of the Calender Round, this occurs once in most lifetimes; meaning a longer dating method is needed, this is the Long Count.

The Long Count is a means of calculating when an event happened in relation to a set day, this start day is thought to be August 6th 3114BC in our calender.  It is this count that is said to have ended today, however, Long Counts also run in cycles and instead of being the end, its really a beginning.  Today wasn't about doom and gloom, instead a celebration of a new beginnings!

So there we have it...the Maya Calender.  Hopefully you stuck with me to the end and all made some sense at least. 

When a Stone is not just a Stone

Image taken from www.explorer.com

 I have opened today with an image of the truly breathtaking Skara Brae, Orkney.  With Winter Solstice almost upon us today had to focus upon the Neolithic, an era where so much research is focused upon the interaction of people with the Sun, Moon, Stars and Planets.  It is a period I love dearly, but, have rarely been fortunate to study.  So today I will tell you a little bit about the beautiful Skara Brae and then share one of my favourite Skara Brae artefacts.

Today is wet, windy and all together rather bleak, but, nothing like Orkney in the Winter of 1850.  A storm hit Scotland and such was its' strength that some 200 people lost their lives.  It also uncovered one of the World's most well preserved and admired archaeological sites.  The 'village' of Skara Brae was known once more...and William Watt wasted little time in exploring the ruins, quickly setting up an amateur excavation.  By 1868 and after uncovering 4 houses his attentions were no longer upon Skara Brae and the site was once more left to the elements.  This was until 1913 when sadly a group of individuals visited the site looting and plundering an unknown number of artefacts, which by now could be anywhere.  It was again left, then the Winter of 1924 set in and another storm hit Orkney, this time causing part of a house to be swept away, this time it was decided that something had to be done and Skara Brae's future rested with Edinburgh University and more specifically Gordon Childe.

By the 1970's 10 houses were fully excavated and the insight gained into Neolithic life was ever rising.  The houses formed a pattern, 9 having almost identical layouts, with one bucking the trend.  This lone house was quickly interpreted as being an area of crafts, a theory supported by the vast amounts of bone and ivory it contained.  Skara Brae is now listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site and excavations and surveys are ongoing.

It is often said that the settlement is small, a village maybe, however it is also often forgotten that Skara Brae was once much further in land and a great deal is likely to be lost to sea.  Surveys have also indicated further dwellings in nearby fields, though excavation is not yet possible.  The wealth of artefacts remaining on the site leads many to suggest that Skara Brae is Britain's Pompeii.  A theory that may not be too far from the truth, well minus the volcano bit!  The preservation is amazing and the cultural remains are unparallelled for a site of its' type.  Why did the inhabitants leave all their belongs behind?  Surely they would need them where ever they moved to?  For us as archaeologists the fact they left everything means we can do far more with the site, but as people if we stop and think about it, it means they left in a hurry.  There was no planning, just up and gone, which means one thing...they were scared.  It is thought that the 'village' was shielded by sand dunes, providing shelter from the Orkney elements.  However, the dunes that kept them safe may well have been what caused them to flee.  If a storm, such as that of 1850, occurred the protector would quickly become the enemy and begin to fill their homes.  Some say it was quickly which caused them to up and leave, others argue it was slowly and leaving was far more controlled and for other unknown reasons.  I am pretty convinced by the storm personally, it is was revealed it after all!

I keep hinting at artefacts and how they were left, but you have yet to see any, so I think it is about time I shared.

Image taken from twcenter.net

They are carved stone balls and have presented archaeologists with yet more mystery.  They appear in their highest numbers in North-East Scotland, but are known in the rest of Scotland, the very North of England and Ireland.  They are all roughly the same size, c6cm in diameter, but their stone type and weight vary dramatically.  This rules out them being used a measurements for traded goods, but does open endless new questions.  Some people think the carvings and bobbly bits are there to make securing a rope to them easier, thus allowing them to be used as weaponry.  Considering geographies and period I am far from convinced by this interpretation. 

Geography plays a part in the second theory.  North-East Scotland and its' islands have many Neolithic standing stone monuments and these carved balls are found in locations close by.  As such it has been suggested that they were used to roll the wooden sleepers that carried some of the stones to their destinations.  It is suggested that is why they are all of similar size, however, would they not be left with the standing stones, why would you take them home again?

Some people have suggested that they are net weights or sinkers, used to assist in fishing.  The number of bones and shells from sea based creatures certainly adds to this theory in the case of Skara Brae.  As does the lack of presence in graves, suggesting that they were not owned or significant in the afterlife.  I would expect to find them on beaches rather than in 'villages', but if they had left in a rush this is possible.

My favourite theory is a bit more in line with the gods and the Solstice.  It states that the carved balls are a form of rune or oracle.  They are thrown, moved, rolled and how they fall tells their users what the gods want from them.  The varied shapes and bobbles have the potential to relate to different gods.  It also explains the conformity in size and styles, if the purpose is cosmological they are made within the boundaries of the belief. 

So there you have the theories, what do you think?  Do you agree with one? Or do you have something different? Don't forget to share!!