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
Tag: archaeology
The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki
How old is the oldest cultural feature on Aotearoa-New Zealand? Imagine being around when the only way to get anywhere was to walk or take a waka (canoe). That was New Zealand in pre-European times – there were no pack animals. When settlers arrived in what was to become Dunedin, in 1848, there was no… Continue reading The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki
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
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
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
Ready in Teotihuacan Player One? (Mexico)
I’m no gamer, but….. ***** Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology is simply stunning. It’s task is to somehow present the bewildering range of peoples, cultures, languages which are, and have been, in this huge country. It does this in the range of usual ways: sculptures, textiles, photos, cinematic projections, reconstructions. When I visited (fortuitously… Continue reading Ready in Teotihuacan Player One? (Mexico)
The Prehistoric Songlines of Brittany, France
The French woman had parted the curtains, and was peering out into the stormy night. *** There are up-sides and down-sides to travelling in the European winter – there are, of course, less tourists, but to compensate for this, the locals tend to shut up shop. I’d arrived in Carnac, the little town in the… Continue reading The Prehistoric Songlines of Brittany, France
Of Wolves, Ibex and Mongolian Petroglyphs
In all my outings in Mongolia, I never saw a wolf – I only heard them howling while camping out one night (you can read about that here). Wolves, so I was told, are not a danger to humans – mostly. They are smart enough to avoid trouble, but a hungry wolf is a different… Continue reading Of Wolves, Ibex and Mongolian Petroglyphs
Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey
‘Fox-holes’ perhaps? Did snipers crouch in these to fire down on an enemy below? What were these little rings of rocks strategically placed high up along the edges of central Turkish gorges? (see the featured image) How old are they? Fifty years? Five hundred? Five thousand maybe? We geologists all lived in a wonderful house… Continue reading Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey