Black Civil War soldiers' graves, lost and found?

Somewhere in Houston lie the forgotten remains of Civil War-era soldiers, and HISD officials will meet with archaeologists on Monday to discuss plans for a dig to determine whether those graves are at the site of a proposed fine-arts school complex near downtown.

"There is a clear certainty there is a missing national cemetery in Houston," historical researcher Janet Wagner said Friday. "If HISD doesn't have it, somebody does". . .

Wagner said the first word that graves might be in a portion of the seven-acre site in the Fourth Ward came more than three years ago from Anthony Pizzitola, who . . . told Wagner and school officials that as a youth he heard that an African-American soldier cemetery was in the area.

Read the full story in the Houston Chronicle.

Shamans vs archeologists

Like the American game of curators and Indians, but now playing out in Siberia:

High in the Altai mountains of southern Siberia, where Shamans still practise their ancient rites and most people are descended from Asiatic nomads, there is a whiff of revolt in the air.

Local officials, urged on by the increasingly militant electorate, are collecting signatures, writing petitions and demanding audiences with regional political leaders. Their demands are simple and have nothing to do with the inept rule, poverty, corruption and ecological disasters dogging the region.

They want a 2,500-year-old mummy, found by Russian archaeologists 11 years ago and being studied in the Siberian capital of Novosibirsk, to be reinterred without delay.

Egged on by powerful shamans who local people believe act as go-betweens with the heavenly spirits, they say only the mummy's reburial will put an end to a rash of earthquakes and other problems assailing the region.

The mummy in question is an archaeological jewel. When her ornately tattooed body was found entombed in ice in an ancient burial chamber, the find was acclaimed as one of the most important in Russia's recent history.

The Ice Maiden, as she was dubbed, had survived almost intact in the permafrost of the southern Siberian mountains, surrounded by a burial sacrifice of six horses in gilt harnesses.

Read the full story in The Telegraph.

18th-century "Negro Burying Ground" identified in NH

DNA testing has confirmed that bodies uncovered at a grave site found at Court and Chestnut streets last fall are of African-American descent.

In October, while digging for a new sewer line, crews unearthed coffins with human remains. A total of 13 coffins were found, but only eight were exhumed. City officials left the others because they would not be impacted by the construction project.

Samples from four were sent to Dr. Bruce Jackson of the Boston University School of Medicine. Jackson is working on the DNA African-American Roots Project, trying to link African-Americans to their ancestral heritage. . .

The DNA science backed up historical research which found the site on city maps dating back to 1705 identified as a "Negro Burying Ground."

The discovery also paves the way for further identification:

Jackson said, through the research, scientists found what is known as a "deletion" of two base sequences in the mitochondrial DNA, which is found in about 95 percent of African-Americans and Caribbean blacks. . .

"It implies that the mutation existed among Africans even two or three centuries ago," he said. "It’s a true marker. What we see in modern African-Americans is a marker that has been passed down. It’s going to make it a lot easier to identify Africans now."

From Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Links to other writeups here.

Gigantor/Ironman 28 creator dies

Mitsuteru Yokoyama, 69, who also created Little Witch Sally, was found unconscious in his bed with severe burns and later died in hospital. Police said the fire was suspected to have been started by a lit cigarette by his bedside.

Ironman 28 was one of the first Japanese cartoons to be exported to the US, where it was known as Gigantor.

Yokoyama was inspired to draw by the late Osamu Tezuka, Japan's best-known manga cartoonist and creator of the Astro Boy series.

From the BBC.

Money-laundering laws trip up coin collectors

A caution for Europe-bound collectors:

The new money-laundering laws appear inadvertently to have created a problem for the coin trade.

The issue came to light at the last Paris Coin Fair on March 13, when auctioneers Spink, who attended to promote their sale of the Marshall Collection in London on March 31, presented the catalogue but none of the lots, as would normally be expected.

Under the new laws, all cash transactions totalling €15,000 (about £10,000) or more must be registered, and there are fears that French Customs officers are interpreting the law so literally that members of the trade carrying valuable collections of coins across borders may be stopped.

A spokesman from Spink said that about a year ago a member of their staff was held up because they did not have a list of the coins in their hand luggage even though they had no obligation to do so.

From the Antiques Trade Gazette.

Unfortunately, it is all too common for laws to be passed without commonsense exceptions for the old and antique. When I lived in California, state handgun laws applied equally to a new Glock and a 16th-century wheellock. I never heard of them being enforced when it came to antique arms, but they were very much on the books. And probably still are, since the old-and-antique lobby is pretty much nonexistent -- as opposed to, say, the entertainment industry lobby, which makes sure that California weapons laws always have an out for film, TV, and stage props. It isn't just weapons, either -- ivory and other bits of endangered beasties have also ended up on the restricted list, without any distinction between old and new.

Nor is the Old World any better, as the article cited above illustrates. It isn't just indifferent Eurocrats, either. The French, for example, are sticklers for hallmarking any bits of precious metal that cross their borders. I know of a few pieces of 4th-century Roman silver that ended up so stamped, and a French pen collector of my acquaintance ran into real trouble once when returning from a Swiss pen show: he had brought along several gold and silver pieces from his personal collection, but a number weren't of French manufacture and so lacked French assay marks. He was treated as if he were smuggling grey-market Rolexes, even though the pens were all at least 60 years old.

Though the internet has had a huge impact in bringing collectors (and dealers) together across national boundaries, taking collections across national borders remains as involved as it ever was, with little prospect of change anytime soon.

Staffordshire record: Jaws of the Raj

The Death of Munrow, depicting the attack by a tiger on a certain Mr Munroe in 1793 when he was out on a hunting party on Saugar Island in West Bengal, is one of the most dramatic and celebrated subjects to be recorded in Staffordshire earthenware. As a result it usually commands a high price when it comes up for sale at auction but few could have predicted the $130,000 (£74,285) (plus buyer’s premium) realised for the example that appeared at Sotheby’s New York last week [April 7 -- D].

From the Antiques Trade Gazette; more on Staffordshire here (including useful links to sites illustrating reproductions), Sotheby's catalog entry here:

The Gentleman's Magazine of July 1793 records the "awful, horrid, and lamentable accident" that befell a certain Mr. Munro. He and his party had paused to take a meal while hunting on Saugor Island in West Bengal when the unfortunate Mr. Munro was attacked and carried off by "an immense royal tiger". Rescued by his friends, he died of his wounds twenty-four hours later. The incident caused a stir not only in England but in India as well. Tipu Sultan of Mysore derived particular pleasure from the young man's misfortune and commissioned his mechanical toy, the Man-Tyger-Organ. Housed within a life-size carved and painted wood model of a tiger attacking a European was a mechanical pipe organ which, when cranked, emitted the growls of the tiger and the screams of its victim. Tipu's Tiger was seized following his death at the Battle of Seringapatum in 1799 and transported to London where it was put on exhibition at East India House in 1808, Tipu Sultan and his toy continuing to excite the popular imagination for decades and certainly serving as inspiration for the Staffordshire potter.

Tall ship parade canceled

This summer's Tall Ships Parade of Sail into Narragansett Bay has been canceled because of the high cost of providing shoreline security and traffic control, organizers announced yesterday.

However, the festival itself, featuring 14 world-class Tall Ships, will be held as planned from July 16 to July 20 at the Quonset/Davisville Port and Commerce Park. . .

As has happened in the past, communities along the parade route were expected to cover the costs for police and fire protection, trash cleanup, portable toilets and whatever else was needed, according to Conventures, the Boston-based event planning company hosting Sail Rhode Island. . .

But shoreline towns have alerted organizers that they are not willing -- and cannot afford -- to staff the large-scale event without reimbursement.

From today's Providence Journal.

A well-earned retirement

A man believed to be the US' oldest worker has retired at the age of 104. Science professor Ray Crist has stepped down from his teaching position at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He began teaching there in 1970 after reaching Dickinson University's mandatory retirement age of 70.

From Ananova, with a more extensive writeup in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Armor-piercing arrows

Intriguing mention, but pretty much undecipherable as is:

When archaeologists began sifting through relics for a new exhibition at Helmsley Castle, they made a startling discovery which has transformed expert assessment of the strategic significance of the 800-year-old fortress. For the English Heritage team noticed that arrowheads, traditionally made only of iron, were braised with copper alloy at the point where the head mated with the wooden shaft.

That should be "brazed" (soldered together with molten brass), not "braised" (browned, then simmered).

The copper turned the arrowhead into a lethal weapon capable of splitting chain mail and armour.

But how? If a two-part construction is meant -- arrowhead and socket or tang -- how would that be any more efficient? The picture with the article shows an arrowhead proportioned more like a crossbow bolt than a conventional bodkin, and so better adapted against plate armor. Perhaps this is the significance of the find, and the story just got (badly) garbled in the press release.

The discovery is of national significance – similar arrows have only ever previously been found in the wreckage of Henry VIII's flagship Mary Rose – and added to the growing body of evidence that the tranquil market town was an unlikely cradle of military technology.

Can't find any reference to brazed construction or the use of copper in the Mary Rose arrowheads. Anyone have any suggestions? From the Yorkshire Post. Other briefer but equally opaque writeups here and here.

Nazi loot: now it's the Belgians' turn

Missed this story last week; it doesn't appear to have received much press:

Belgian banks have begun returning possessions of Jews deported or killed during World War II to their heirs from safe deposit boxes that had been sealed for more than half a century. . .

"We've identified 12 people, but it's not finished,'' [Belgian Finance Minister Didier] Reynders said at a ceremony in Brussels. "We have to continue in the coming years with the identification of any other possible claimants". . .

In 2002, the Jewish community was awarded 110 million euros ($133 million) by banks, the Belgian government and insurance companies as compensation for money that was stolen during the war. There are about 6,000 applications for compensation and the heirs are still being identified. . .

Meanwhile, the Jewish community in Belgium finds itself threatened once again.

Leak damage at the Annunziata

This has been an ongoing story, but hasn't been widely picked up:

Just a few short blocks from the current media circus over David's dust, it is raining inside one of Florence's most important churches. While high-powered sponsors and celebrities stand in line to contribute enormous sums of money to restore high-profile objects, the Florentine city council has announced that they do not have the funds necessary to repair the leaking roof, which alone would eat up 25% of their annual budget. This is not a new problem, but one that has been ongoing for many years, as evidenced by an ArtWatch photo taken in June of 2002, which shows already extensive damage.

Read more at ArtWatch International. Once again, an illustration of the disproportionate amount of attention that follows celebrity -- not something I'm inclined to make a fuss about when it comes to famous living persons, but worrisome when it spills over into preservation policy.

Tagging ancient crosses

Ancient granite crosses which have stood on Dartmoor for centuries are being microchipped in a pioneering move to beat thieves, it emerged today.

Dartmoor National Park Authority archaeologists are attaching tiny chips to about 200 crosses and other granite artefacts across the 365 square mile wilderness in Devon.

DNP archaeologist Jane Marchand said today there had been a growing awareness that some granite artefacts had disappeared from the moor over the years. The microchips would now enable the DNP to identify them if they turned up in sales, she said. "The whole thing came to a head when there was an attempt to steal a medieval granite cross on the open moorland".

From the Scotsman, with another mention at the BBC -- which notes that "garden makeover programmes" on TV are being blamed.

Ice-Age common market?

The people who created the first surviving art in Britain were committed Europeans, belonging to a common culture spanning France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, according to the man who discovered the cave art in Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire.

And the essential preoccupations of this single market in ice-age art, it seems, were hunting and naked dancing girls.

The discovery of 13,000-year-old rock paintings in Nottinghamshire last year rewrote ice-age history in Britain. Today, archaeologists from all over Europe are in Creswell to discuss how the finds form part of a continent-wide culture known as the Magdalenian.

Read more in today's Guardian.

Some thoughts regarding museum security

Perhaps some museums are doing better, but it still seems an awful lot are not making good use of available security technology (e.g., the Leonardo stolen in the UK, the Saliere in Vienna -- or just search the site under "art theft"). Human error is, of course, still a major consideration, but there still far too many galleries that lack any sort of modern antitheft measures -- this at a time when surveillance cameras are proliferating just about everywhere else (FuturePundit has a good recent post on this). Last time I looked -- several months back -- there was a good range of affordable packages enabling one to hook up multiple video feeds to a PC and automatically monitor for specified motion patterns. And by "affordable", I mean for a homeowner or small business; for a museum of any merit, "absurdly cheap" is more like it. But until the insurance companies put on the pressure, I expect things will not change very quickly (with even less pressure on institutions that are government-run and indemnified).

A couple of further thoughts:
Why not outsource the task of watching video feeds from surveillance cameras? The usual complaint is that attention drifts as boredom sets in, but that frequent shift changes require too much staff. Watch centers abroad would not only allow higher staffing, but by taking advantage of time differences would also allow watchers to work at peak alertness. Though outsourcing of call centers has sometimes proved problematical, language and cultural barriers aren't much of an obstacle to recognizing vandalism, theft, etc.

And here's a low-tech device for museums that even I could build right now, but which I've never heard of: a camera flash detector. Aside from their cumulative effects on paintings and other light-sensitive objects, flashes are a real annoyance to other museumgoers. In many galleries, however, guards have to cover more than one room, so surreptitious flash photography is easy to get away with (even if the results usually stink due to reflection). If a flash triggered an alarm, that might have considerable deterrent value -- similar to the shock detectors and proximity alarms already used here and there to keep visitors from getting too up close and personal to the artworks.

Low-tech refrigeration

Sometimes simple solutions have a disproportionately large impact. One such case may be the pot-in-pot method of refrigeration, which uses two clay pots with wet sand packed between to harness the power of evaporative cooling. Not much use in damp climates, obviously, but another matter entirely where the air is dry. Although there may be ancient precedents -- I'm sure our readers will chime in -- as a practical matter this is a new invention, for which Nigerian potter MOhammed Bah Abba recently received a Rolex Award for Enterprise. Spotted thanks to Andrew Sullivan.

Hamlet unsold

A rare edition of Hamlet, printed in 1611, failed to meet its reserve price at auction in New York last night. The edition is one of only 19 copies of its kind and the only one remaining in private hands. . .

The book belonged to the late Viscountess Eccles, Mary Hyde, a New Jersey book collector who died last August at the age of 91. Christie's, which organised the sale, had estimated that it would fetch up to $2 million (£1.1 million), but the auction proved a disappointment.

From the Telegraph; another writeup at the BBC.

Previous post here.

No taxation without intoxication!

For the bet-you-didn't-know-that file, courtesy of Tyler Cowen:

At least 11 states, including Alabama, North Carolina and Nevada, tax people who possess illegal drugs. . .

In North Carolina, for instance, when you acquire an illegal drug (or even "moonshine"), you can go to the Department of Revenue and pay your tax, in exchange for which you'll receive stamps to affix to your illegal substance. . .

The majority of the $78.3 million the state has collected thus far has come from those who got busted and were found without stamps. But even if they had had stamps, it's not like their legal troubles would be over. "Purchasing stamps only fulfills your civil unauthorized substance tax obligation," according to the N.C. DOR Web site.

Clearly not a lot of deterrent value here. Perhaps they'll next start levying a tax on contract murders, burglary, and blackmail (hey, sounds like The Sopranos!) Full story along with some other odd taxes at CNN.

Crying wolf on campus

Once again, a shocking on-campus crime proves a hoax. Is this only the tip of the iceberg? Read this Chicago Tribune essay and decide for yourself.

Hate crime hoaxes are by far the most prevalent type of campus "crimes." Many of these have a rational basis on the part of perpetrators in attempting to bring attention to their cause.

Last year, a Northwestern University student who said he was the victim of racist graffiti and a knife attack was later charged with felony disorderly conduct after he admitted to police that both reports were fake. A police report issued by San Francisco State University found that racial epithets written on the doors of two African-American students were not the product of racism, but rather a way to bring attention to racial issues on the part of the students themselves. When two African-American students at Miami University of Ohio distributed racist flyers around the Black Student Association offices, they claimed that the hoax was the only way they could address racism on campus.

While hate-crime hoaxes can be understood as a way to bring attention to a cause, it is more difficult to understand the growing number of campus rape fabrications.

The author opines that much of this is driven by the celebration of victimhood on college campuses. Her mention of "Take Back the Night" marches set me wondering how long they have been going on and to what effect. Best I can figure, it's been 25+ years of sound and fury. . .

Hat tip to Dan Drezner.

On the street where you live

The remains of a 16th Century cess pit, a Roman causeway and evidence of a red light district have been uncovered during a month-long dig in Worcester. The site at Newport Street will be closed for one more day before work starts to build 114 flats.

Archaeologists say they have uncovered a priceless uninterrupted vision of life along what was once one of Worcester's main streets.

Belatedly excerpted from the BBC.

Baghdad museum looting: where's the outrage now?

Remember Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, appointed to investigate and recover the losses at Baghdad's archeological museum? I don't recall anyone having an ill word to say about him, whether politicians, reporters, or academics. Nor, however, does anyone seem to be giving him much of a hand:

Matthew Bogdanos said 4,500 artefacts had been recovered so far, but 8,000 works - including some of the most valuable - were still missing. The Interpol, France, Switzerland and Dubai had all failed to respond, he told the BBC's Today programme. . .

Colonel Bogdanos . . . said on Tuesday he could not find the words to express his anger at international law enforcement agencies for failing to help trace "some of the most priceless artefacts known to mankind". "I cannot seem to get the international community - apart from the UK, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait and the US - interested in participating," he said.

That's a pretty long list of foot-draggers -- including all of continental Europe except Italy. Where's France? And if Switzerland were at all serious about improving its reputation as the thieves' market of the western world, a bit of effort here would be the minimum one might expect.

Colonel Bogdanos said although the Interpol would be an ideal candidate to facilitate a global investigation, it was "unwilling or unable" to do so.

One can only hope that this is because they are fully occupied with more important matters. But somehow I doubt all will be so convinced. From the BBC.

NOTE: Not a lot of attention being paid to this story, either. As of this morning, I see mentions in only two papers, the Guardian and the Scotman. No results Googling in French, German or Italian, though a few notices in Spanish.

A list of our previous posts on the museum looting story here.

Batu Hitam shipwreck: the Tang, reconsidered

"I landed on what looked like an ordinary section of coral reef," Mr Walterfang told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. "But it was actually an underwater mound the size of a small hill that was built almost entirely of tens of thousands of pieces of well-preserved ceramic pottery."

That was six years ago. His discovery was the second of three wrecks - the third being the Tang - which has turned out to be an undersea treasure trove of such massive historical significance that Shanghai, Singapore and Doha in Qatar are vying with each other to buy the cargo. The 60,000 pieces Mr Walterfang collected from the seabed, include porcelain ceramic wine jugs, and tea bowls, embossed golden and silver chalices and plates found to be 1,200 years old.

The treasure was part of a huge cargo of eighth-century porcelain that traders from the Chinese Tang dynasty had put aboard an Arab dhow for export to Malaysia, India and what is now Saudi Arabia. The dhow's remains, found among the treasure, suggest the ship was wrecked on the treacherous underwater reefs of Indonesia's Karimata straits on its outward voyage through the Java sea.

Read the full story in the Independent. This also appears to be yet another cautionary tale for historians busy connecting dots, sometimes forgetting quite how many dots are missing:

Until Mr Walterfang's find, archeologists had assumed that 1,200 years ago, China was a relatively backward country which relied primarily on agriculture to survive. They had little notion that the Tang dynasty of the period, had already started to set up maritime trading routes that were to establish China as the first great sea power, 200 years before the Spanish, Portuguese and British had theirs. . .

John Guy, curator of the Indian and South-east Asian section of the Victoria & Albert Museum said: "Sometimes things happen which dramatically broaden the limits of our knowledge. The discovery of the Tang period wreck is such an event."

Archeologists say the Batu Hitam wreck provides incontrovertible evidence that, 1,200 years ago, China had started sea trade as an alternative to the then well-established Silk Road that extended from China through Asia to the Arab world.

Sizing up the past

Fascinating article in the New Yorker on how average height has varied from place to place and time to time -- significant, in that average height is a direct reflection of the effects of disease and inadequate diet.

In Europe, for example, it would appear life was better in 800 than for nearly a millennium thereafter (though one might argue that the benefits of increased trade, urbanism, and culture might have offered some offset). More controversially, height statistics suggest that black slaves in the American south were relatively well-fed, significantly better fed, in fact, than their African ancestors. The big present day mystery: why Americans now appear to be getting shorter, even as Europeans continue to grow.

Hat tip to Alex Tabarrok.

UPDATE: Perhaps not as much of a mystery as one might suppose. I didn't have time to look at the underlying studies cited, but from those who have delved, it doesn't look pretty. The notion that the genetic component of height could be ignored between groups should have been a red flag, calling into question the claim that the American-European comparisons were properly corrected to compare like with like. For a thorough and rather savage dissection, look here.

Nimrud ivories: a condition report

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about ivory that the ancient ivories of the Nimrud hoard have not benefited from being soaked in sewage. The Art Newspaper reports:

. . . the exquisitely carved Nimrud Ivories have been suffering from dampness, following flooding by sewage-contaminated water last April, during the fighting. It is now clear that this has already caused some fragmentation and mould. . .

At the time of the first Gulf War in 1990 they were moved from the National Museum in Baghdad to the central bank, along with the Nimrud Gold, for their protection. After the vaults were opened last June, the tin trunk containing the boxed ivories was immediately moved to a drier room within the underground complex. Baghdad museum staff then spent several days cleaning and air-drying the ivories. However, the ivories were only superficially dried before they were repacked in fresh cardboard boxes.

Unfortunately, environmental conditions in the vaults remain poor, since it is cold in winter and hot in summer. It also still a damp environment. The ivories are, therefore, drying extremely slowly, a process which, from a conservation point of view, ought to have been completed many months ago because damp conditions often lead to the growth of mould.

Recent events, historical perspectives

Two pieces worth reading, if you haven't already:
Donald Sensing surveys the history of lynching in America, noting: "The real question is not why some Fallujans committed the atrocities. It is why we no longer commit them ourselves".
Glenn Reynolds contrasts casualties in Iraq with, well, every previous war, but especially WW2 and Vietnam. When newspapers call 12 deaths in a day "heavy casualties", one cannot but conclude that the reporters and editors have entirely forgotten what our parents and grandparents lived through. Chris Stacy's observations (cited by Reynolds) on the WW2 Memorial's Freedom Wall are particularly compelling in this regard.

Petrarch's skull missing

The skull of Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian poet and humanist, has been stolen from his tomb. . .

The discovery of the theft, which may have happened centuries ago, dashed hopes that the true history and appearance of the writer could be pieced together.

DNA tests carried out on a tooth and one of the ribs exhumed from Petrarch's tomb near Padua showed that they belonged to two different people. The poet was said to have been a strapping man, and the head was too small to match the skeleton.

From the Telegraph. Previous posts and links here.

Aiding the temple-deniers

Forging biblical-era artifacts can have serious repercussions, well beyond scamming those who purchase or venerate them. Jim Davila discusses how recent forgeries have played into the hands of fanatics who deny that there ever was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. His summary:

If the allegations of a massive forgery ring are proved in court, the ring will have done immeasurable damage to serious historical and archaeological study of ancient Israel. The verified forgeries so far are bad enough. I fear, at least until we have a better idea of what went on, we should assume that any unprovenanced Hebrew inscription that has surfaced in the last twenty years or so is a forgery, unless we have very strong evidence to the contrary.

More on Anglo-Saxon royal burial

An ancient silver spoon buried in the grave of an early Christian king may be one of the earliest christening spoons found in Britain, archaeologists said yesterday.

The spoon was discovered alongside a lyre and copper box for holding relics in the burial chamber of the so-called Prince of Prittlewell, a high-ranking aristocrat who lived in Essex 1,400 years ago.

From the Telegraph; for more on the find, which was reported in early February, look here.

Joyce Dubliners letter sells

A letter in which author James Joyce pleaded with a publisher to buy his first major book Dubliners has sold for £32,265 at Christie's in London.

Joyce wrote the letter to Heinemann publishers in 1905 when he was 23 - but his work was turned down and he battled for a decade to have it published.

From the BBC.

Management secrets of Captain Ahab; or, Whaling, (un)incorporated

Whaling looms large in our picture of America's maritime past -- but seldom in terms of how whaling ventures were structured. Ben Muse, however, takes a look at a recent study which seeks to explain why corporations never really made much headway in the world of the Pequod.

Art on the run

Rush, rush, rush. Tyler Cowen takes a look at performances repackaged in bite-sized chunks for the culture consumer in a hurry (operas under ten minutes? no problem!). Brings to mind a very funny accelerated Hamlet I used to see at the northern California Renaissance Fair -- but really, you had to have been there . . . .

The focus of the post (and the Guardian article that prompted it) is on the performing arts. But when it comes to the visual arts, the issue of time is a real one -- which is one reason I worry about high museum admission fees being so offputting for those who might prefer to pop in for multiple quick visits rather than fewer long stays.

Roman arms dump in Germany

Archaeologists in Germany have described a Roman weapons dump discovered near the city of Göttingen as a "sensational find" that is yielding valuable military artefacts.

Excavations on the site have just started, but more than 250 metal objects, most of them weapons or tools used by Roman legionnaires in 10BC, have been found. They include several rare examples of a soldier’s axe, an all-purpose Swiss army knife of its day. . .

The site served as an ordnance depot for Roman troops fighting Germanic tribes farther north.

Also brought up from metres of clay and bog is a rare example of a pilum, the favoured javelin-type spear of the legionnaires, deployed when close combat with their swords was not possible [Not exactly -- it was typically hurled before closing to sword range -- D.]. Other items include catapult balls, lances, axe heads and knives.

From The Scotsman, which also notes:

[the site] was discovered in a wood near Göttingen in 1985 by metal-detecting hobbyists. Local authorities sealed it off when its importance was fully realised. Although looters might have taken some objects the archaeologists are hopeful the depot still has much more to offer up.

NOCH MEHR hier, auf Deutsch (slideshow here).