One of the beauties of modern archaeological technique is the ability to analyse ancient battle, or massacre sites, in a forensic way. This has happened at the famous Teutoberg Forest site in northern Germany, and is happening in the also famous ‘Tollense’, site in north-western Germany. It’s become known as the earliest battle site in… Continue reading Geography and the Bronze Age Battle at Tollense, Germany
Category: History/Archaeology
A Crimean Gothic Woman from the Seventh Century
Crimea, Goths and Archaeology The indigenous people of Crimea are generally regarded as the ‘Crimean Tartars’. But Crimea has older identities than that…. For example, the ‘Crimean Goths‘. The Goths were one of the identities on the move around Europe in the ‘Migration Period’. Their origin is murky, but is often regarded as being in… Continue reading A Crimean Gothic Woman from the Seventh Century
The mid 7th-century Gaponovo Costume of Russia
In the mid 7th-century someone wrapped 411 objects in a cloth, and buried them in a pit, near what is now the Kursk region of Russia. They obviously never came back to get them, so presumably, things did not end well. The hoard was accidentally rediscovered centuries later, and then published in a report edited… Continue reading The mid 7th-century Gaponovo Costume of Russia
1066 and the Dead Parrot (The weird things going on in the margins of the Bayeux Tapestry)
I like to see things for myself. It can give me a sense of place or scale that one doesn’t get from books or the internet. It also gives a chance to spot something new, that whoever might have photographed the original, wasn’t thinking about. Like most people of generally British Isles background, I was… Continue reading 1066 and the Dead Parrot (The weird things going on in the margins of the Bayeux Tapestry)
Time-Travel in a Time of COVID-19
What’s a guy to do during lock-down? I’ve chosen to time-travel back to around the first and second centuries AD. At that time the Roman Empire stretched over much of Europe, and along the southern Mediterranean as well. In two of its provinces, Noricum and Pannonia (roughly covering what is now parts of Austria, Slovenia,… Continue reading Time-Travel in a Time of COVID-19
New Zealand’s Doggerland
Do we have a submerged ‘Doggerland‘ in New Zealand? In 1950 a boat, the HMNZS ‘Lachlan’ dredged a sample of “lignite” from the bottom of Toitoi (or Toetoe) Bay, at the far south end of New Zealand’s South Island, from a depth of nine fathoms (the general view shown in the featured image. See below… Continue reading New Zealand’s Doggerland
A Nail up the Nose, and another take on Monotheism
You’d have to really dislike someone to bash a nail up their nose. The day before Wanaka’s Alchemy Cafe closed because of the flooding, I was sitting there, watching a doco on YouTube: ‘A Troubled Island – The Minotaur’s Island’, about ancient Crete. I generally avoid archaeology videos because they normally seem desperate to gravitate… Continue reading A Nail up the Nose, and another take on Monotheism
Searching for Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey
So where the heck is Smyrna? I’d heard a little about the awful days of 1922, but despite having made a few trips to Turkey, I’d never noticed Smyrna on a map. It wasn’t until I read Giles Milton’s book: ‘Paradise Lost: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance’, that I finally got wise. Smyrna… Continue reading Searching for Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey
That Rich Woman in the Slovenian Forest
We don’t know what she looked like, because most of her upper body has vanished…. Most of you probably don’t know of my ‘secret’ ambition – to ‘time travel’ by recreating life-like images of people from long ago. I’m keen to know what those corroded brooches, diadems, ear-rings, and what-not that you see in museums,… Continue reading That Rich Woman in the Slovenian Forest
An Ottoman Treasure in Develi, Turkey
Tourism – good thing or bad? I’ve written about Develi before –a town in central Turkey, where I was based, along with my geological colleagues. It’s a culturally conservative city, where women tend not to be on the streets. Not because they can’t, it’s just the cultural thing for women to stay at home while the… Continue reading An Ottoman Treasure in Develi, Turkey