Levenger drops it

Or rather, one of their photographers: look at this pen, and then click on Zoom and then on the nib detail. Whoops!

Spotted via the Stylophiles message board.

Tattoo history exhibition

Tattoos may be currently fashionable, but a new exhibition at Newcastle University’s Museum of Antiquities is shedding light on what many may not realise is an ancient art.

The exhibition, Tattoo, running until December 21 2006, explores the history of tattooing in Britain and reveals some of the meanings behind symbols traditionally etched into the skin. It also demonstrates that some form of ‘body art’ has been practised in the British Isles for thousands of years.

Research has shown that Roman soldiers based at Hadrian’s Wall would have had a military tattoo, and the exhibition even explains the technique they would have used.

Full article here. The museum's website is here, and includes other goodies such as the Virtual Mithraeum.

Beslan anniversary

Can it only have been two years ago? Eventful times: it seems like so much longer.

And of course, still all too few answers -- though it is now clear that the Russian response was rather less than surgical, making use of RPGs, tank cannon, and even flamethrowers.

Belgian purge of Holocaust archives

Appalling story -- read it all:

The Belgian authorities have destroyed archives and records relating to the persecution and deportation of Jews in Belgium in the 1930s and 1940s. Some of this happened as recently as the late 1990s. This was revealed during hearings in the Belgian Senate last Spring. Though the Senate report dates from 4 May the Belgian press has not yet mentioned the affair. The Senate report says that “documents about the period 1930-1950 have been destroyed on a massive scale.”

The systematic destructions of the records of police and judiciary from the 1930s and ’40s happened chiefly in Brussels and Wallonia, the French-speaking south of Belgium. The Senate report states that in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of the country, archives have been saved thanks to conscientious archivists. “This policy – of having competent archivists manage dead archives – contrasts with the disastrous situation at the offices of the public prosecutors in Brussels and Wallonia.”

From Brussels Journal, via Instapundit.

Finders weepers

TWO treasure hunters in Oldham are to be investigated by police after a unique 2,000-year-old Roman ring, which they claimed to have found in a field, turned out to have been bought on eBay. . .

The police are expected to investigate whether the two local men are guilty of fraud and whether they had actually bought the ring and then pretended to find it, hoping that they would get a reward greater than the sum originally paid for the item. . .

Gary Moore, who has since been unanimously voted out of the North West Metal Detecting Club (NWMDC), said: "I did everything according to the law and look what I got for my troubles."

Mr Moore claims someone he knows has since admitted hiding the ring in the field as a prank.

Full story here.

Last call for Airfix?

Iconic model-maker name Airfix faces an uncertain future following parent firm Humbrol's entry into administration.

Since 1949, generations of children have struggled over plastic kit parts and tubes of glue. . .

Thirty-one of 41 staff at the Hull firm have lost their jobs, with Grant Thornton of Leeds named administrators.

From the BBC.

ADDENDUM: Airfix memories here.

Scream recovered

The odds sure didn't seem promising, but good news today:

AN ART gallery was reunited with two of its most cherished treasures yesterday when police announced the recovery of Edvard Munch’s stolen masterpieces, The Scream and Madonna.

Putting an end to two years of angst and anger after a robbery in Norway, police said that both works appeared to be in good condition.

From the Times of London.

The students are back, the card catalogs are gone

A friend called earlier this week to let me know Brown's Rockefeller Library was dumping all their massive old card catalog cabinets in the trash. Not the best way to get rid of them (why not consign them to a local auction house, with no reserve?), but I couldn't think of anything I could use them for. At last report the dumpster divers were busy at work.

How many university libraries have gotten rid of their card catalogs entirely? Or should I be asking, how many still retain them?

Antiquities OK in Lebanon?

So states the National Geographic Society; as Jim Davila notes, this would appear to contradict earlier reports of damage to the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek. Baalbek is one of those must-eventually-see destinations for anyone of a classical bent, but unfortunately is also one of Hezbollah's main strongholds. Interesting that while Hezbollah made a practice of launching their rockets next to schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings, they apparently didn't do the same with archeological sites. This time.

Chinese Celts?

As the saying goes, "interesting -- if true". But it looks as if the Independent's article on ancient Europeans in China doesn't pass the "if true" test:

There is no evidence that the Urumqi mummies spoke Celtic languages, or that they were Europeans, or even Indo-Europeans. The DNA evidence can only be used to show that they were of West Eurasian, not European origin. As for their language, none of them have been accompanied, as far as I know, by any writings. It is reasonable that they might have spoken an Indo-European language, although by no means proven.

Full dissection here and here.

Naguib Mahfouz obit

The Egyptian novelist, Naguib Mahfouz, wrote more than 30 novels, and in 1988 became the first Arab to win the Nobel prize for literature. He died in hospital on 30 August after injuring himself in a fall in July.

Naguib Mahfouz was arguably the greatest Arab novelist of the 20th Century.

He had something of the status of a national treasure in Egypt, where many of his characters became household names.

From the BBC, with an additional entry here.

Planetary thoughts

For whatever reason, I've never felt strongly one way or the other about whether Pluto should be termed a planet. Others, clearly, feel strongly about leaving "their" solar system unaltered.

Notable and intelligent commentary at the Space Review; here's a very brief excerpt of its conclusion:

What if, though, the IAU had taken a different approach? Perhaps astronomers could have decided not to make a formal definition of the term “planet”, finding it to be too general and vague. . .

The IAU chose not to take that route, at least this time around, leaving us with the mess we have today, the result of the collision of scientific discoveries about our solar system with the expectation from popular culture about the number of planets the solar system “should” have. Abandoning the generic term “planet” for several more specific classes might not seem very simple or elegant, but has the advantage of offering a better description of the nature of our solar system, and potentially other solar systems as well. Winning the general public over to such a system might be difficult, but as the last few days have shown, even a modest change like demoting Pluto will generate a strong reaction. If we’re going to raise the ire of the public by reclassifying the solar system, we might as well do it for a good cause, and with a strong scientific basis.

Meanwhile, at Dienekes' Anthropology Blog a comparison is drawn between the astronomers' dilemma defining a planet and that of anthropologists defining race:

Is there really any differences between the astronomer's problem and that of the racial taxonomist? He, too, must decide whether or not a particular human individual belongs to a category, a race, say, whether or not someone is a Caucasoid. He can easily accept a necessary condition (a) that the individual must be human.

But, any additional criteria, e.g., a prominent nose or heavy facial hair are ultimately subjective. Indeed, people disagree about the criteria used to decide whether or not one is a Caucasoid or not. Borderline peoples such as some Central Asian Turks, Indians, or some Northwest and Northeast Africans are assigned by some to the Caucasoid race, by others to different races or are considered in-between races, just as dwarf-planets like Pluto inhabit an intermediate zone between the newly-hatched categories of "planet" and "small solar-system body".

More reading on races and racial classification at the Race FAQ.

Cloudy with chances of Ice Age

BRITAIN has had one of the most volatile climates on earth with up to 10 ice ages forcing early settlers into exile, leaving the land uninhabited for periods of up to 110,000 years, researchers have found.

A study — led by the Natural History Museum — of 700,000 years of human attempts to settle in Britain found that the Gulf Stream, which keeps the British Isles warm, kept collapsing, plunging them into Arctic cold. The lurches from temperate to freezing sometimes took as little as 10 years . . .

Thirty archeologists, paleontologists and geologists from institutes across the country worked together to construct a detailed calendar of early humans’ arrivals and departures.

They concluded that the present temperate climate is an anomaly and steamy heat or bitter cold are far more typical.

Stringer said: “We have evidence that between 500,000 and 12,000 years ago humans were only in Britain for about 20% of the time. Between 180,000 and 70,000 years ago Britain was abandoned, completely empty of people.”

From the Sunday Times of London.

A bridge too far

. . . at least for UNESCO:

[Dresden] faces the prospect of losing its hard-won and recently gained status as a Unesco world heritage site because of an apparently unwinnable dispute over a road traffic bridge project.

Despite opposition, Dresden's city government this week announced its intention to press ahead with plans for the construction of an 800m-long, four-lane bridge that will cross the Elbe just upstream from the city, in an attempt to reduce growing traffic congestion. . .

Unesco and environmentalists insist that the bridge will destroy the historic and panoramic view of the city.

From the Independent.

Neanderthals in the woodpile?

People who have large noses, a stocky build and a beetle brow may indeed be a little Neanderthal, according to a genetic study. But the good news is that other research concludes that Neanderthals were much more like us than previously thought.

People of European descent may be five per cent Neanderthal, according to a study published in the journal PLoS Genetics, which suggests we all have a sprinkling of archaic DNA in our genes. . .

Using statistics and computer modelling, the researchers focused on linkage "disequilibriums", or sections within genes that did not make sense if only modern human matings are considered.

The missing genetic links only fit if some other hominid population is introduced. "We found that a simple model cannot explain the data if we do not add an 'ancestral population'," said Dr Plagnol.

From the Telegraph.

Knights of the Garter round table site found

Evidence of a building linked to the myth of King Arthur and the knights of the round table has been found at Windsor Castle.

The circular structure was built by Edward III in the 14th century to house the round table intended to seat the original 300 Knights of the Garter. Archaeological proof of the building was uncovered by members of Channel 4's Time Team in the castle's quadrangle.

Although the stones have been removed, rubble in-fill where they were originally located remained in place.

From the Independent. More on the Order of the Garter here; excerpt:

In 1344 Edward III made a spectacular demonstration of his interest in Arthurian legend during a massive joust at Windsor. On this occasion he promised to renew King Arthur's celebrated fraternity of knights, the Round Table, with its complement of 300 men. Work even began on a gigantic circular building two-hundred feet across within the upper ward of the castle to house this so-called Order of the Round Table. The renewal of war with France intervened with this project but in 1348 it was revived in a different guise.

Aztec slaughter

Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people travelling with invading Spanish forces in 1520.

Skulls and bones from the Tecuaque archaeological site near Mexico City show about 550 victims had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean, experts say.

The findings support accounts of Aztecs capturing and killing a caravan of Spanish conquistadors and local men, women and children travelling with them in revenge for the murder of Cacamatzin, king of the Aztec empire's No. 2 city of Texcoco. . .

"It was a continuous sacrifice over six months. While the prisoners were listening to their companions being sacrificed, the next ones were being selected," Martinez said, standing in his lab amid boxes of bones, some of young children. . .

The priests and town elders, who performed the rituals on the steps of temples cut off by a perimeter wall, sometimes ate their victims' raw and bloody hearts or cooked flesh from their arms and legs once it dropped off the boiling bones. . .

Some pregnant women in the group had their unborn babies stabbed inside their bellies as part of the ritual.

Full story here. Previous post on archeology debunking cannibalism denial here.

Donny George flees to Damascus

A rather grim picture of the situation in Baghdad:

Donny George has resigned as President of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) in Iraq, citing his frustration at lack of funding and at growing interference from the radical Shi’ite party now in control of the government ministry to which SBAH is attached.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper from Damascus where he has moved with his family, Dr George said that the present financial crisis is so severe that from this month there is no money to pay the salaries of the special police force that has been protecting archaeological sites across Iraq, without which looters will be given free reign.

Dr George says Baghdad is now so dangerous that the National Museum has been closed and completely sealed with thick concrete walls. The move follows the kidnapping two months ago of 50 people near the museum building. . .

Dr George, who is a Christian, says that in the past year an increasingly Islamist and anti-western agenda over which he had little control had permeated the activities of the SBAH. “A lot of people have been sent to our institutions,” he says. “They are only interested in Islamic sites and not Iraq’s earlier heritage.”

From the Art Newspaper.

Petroglyphs destroyed in the name of religion?

Canada's only major Arctic petroglyph site -- a 1,500-year-old gallery of mysterious faces carved into a soapstone ridge on a tiny island off of Quebec's northern coast -- has been ransacked by vandals in what the region's top archeologist suspects was a religiously motivated attack by devout Christians from a nearby Inuit community. . .

More than 170 mask-like images, animal shapes and other symbols have been recorded on the island since the 1960s. Studies suggest Qajartalik was a sacred place, used for Dorset spiritual ceremonies and coming-of-age rituals.

But the site has been dubbed "the Island of the Stone Devils" because some of the faces -- possibly depicting a Dorset shaman in religious costume -- appear to be adorned with horns. In the past, crosses have been scratched on the "pagan" petroglyphs and some area residents have told researchers they believe the site is infested with evil spirits.

Full story here.

Excavating the Zulu War

British soldiers fighting the Zulus experienced appalling conditions similar to the muddy killing fields of World War I, it has emerged.

Archaeologists have revealed details of soldiers' battle for survival during a bloody siege in the Anglo-Zulu War.

Probably chiefly bloody for the besieging Zulus; pestilential for the defending Brits, taken down by typhus.

Historians lacked detailed evidence of the troops' daily lives, but a team of experts from Glasgow have now uncovered a forgotten British fort.

The site at KwaMondi, Eshowe, in South Africa, has been hailed as a treasure trove of historical information which sheds light on the heroism and skill of the Royal Engineers.

Full story at the BBC.

Back from the beach

Onshore but offline for the past several days. Summer break is nearing its end, though -- time to get back to work, and to blogging along the way.