Stone Henge

Stonehenge; it has so much mystery surrounding it: why was it built? Who built it? Why did they stop? When will they release a new song about it? Yes, there is a song written about Stonehenge. From the duo Ylvis, quite catchy too. And, it contains a lot of accurate facts. Well," when in Rome" as they say, or in this case, Salisbury Plain. If you're interested, its called "Stonehenge", but I digress.




I was lucky when I visited, it was in February of 2013.......or was it 2014? Definitely either 2013 or 2014, I do remember it snowed though. Oh, what snow! Real, thick snow! At Stonehenge! Any who, I was lucky. I was able to visit when it was snowing and also enter the stone circle. Yep, I, a lowly Cornish man, travelled to the mighty(ish) stone circle and was allowed entry to the inner sanctum! And touch them! Erm, not actually touch the stones as it turned out. A security guard constantly followed me around repeating his mantra of "YOU CANT TOUCH THE STONES!". Excuse me, my good man, but these stones have been around for 5,000 years. People have been touching them for that amount of time. Hell, the Doctor even fought all of his most deadly enemies there and won! It was where the Pandorica was kept! (okay, that's not strictly true. Turned out Amy Pond was put in the Pandorica). Me touching them now wont suddenly cause them to combust into flames. Though that would be shocking. Hells bells, most of the stones were torn down and buried during the Medieval period. Why? Because they were pagan. Pagan is bad. So they were torn down and buried. That was until a few people were crushed by the falling stones. A very interesting grave and burial marker they received.


But Stonehenge is not the only structure located on Salisbury Plain. The entire place is littered with ancient monuments. Long Barrows, Round Barrows, Ditches, Avenues, Cursus, Banks; you name it, its there (even the Pandorica, I'm sure of it!). Its also got the military training grounds for the British Army and their tanks. Join the Army and see the heritage that you are tasked with protecting from the barrel of a Challenger Mk II battle tank, I love it! The monuments all over are absolutely incredible to behold, but most go unnoticed; which is a shame. People are too busy clicking their cameras to see the ritualistic environment. Not to sound off like a phenomenologist, but there is much more there. Hell, Chris Tilly is alright, but truth be told, most of his work sounds like diary of his LSD/acid trips. Though, I'm sure he doesn't consume anything of that sort.


The investigations that took place at Salisbury plain are amazing, Mike Parker Pearson and his team really do wonders on exploring the entire of the location. The book he published, "Stonehenge: A new understanding", looks to explain the entire sites of the area, and their incredible interwoven history. Its not just the sites that are explored, but it also touches on the people, also more importantly, the organisation and communications. I mean, it is absolutely mind boggling with the distances involved! Salisbury Plain, that would have required an entire mobilisation of a community. Then the fact that, forty-two miles away, they were quarrying the stones, transporting them, then raising them up. Set this to the time of over 5,000 years, and in my own humble opinion, you've got an amazing achievement. If you tried that today, it would collapse at the planning stage. Why? Planning permission, work hours, health and safety, pressure groups, greenbelt and brownfield sites, and the fact that it would all be wrapped up by red tape. There is, (albeit, an idea that I find absolutely hysterical, and only a complete raving porridge brained eejit would latch onto), aliens built it as a landing site. Just like they built every other ancient monument. Eejits.


Now, I best summarise I reckon. Stonehenge is amazing, the entire landscape needs to be taken into account. Otherwise, as Parker Pearson says:
"context is everything. If the piece is taken out of context, i.e. people as well, its going to be a flawed interpretation."
There are so many well hidden gems that are worth seeing, that are off the beaten track. That's where the new Stonehenge Information Centre comes to the fore, it actively involves the visitor to see the rest of the sites that occupy the land. So, have a gander and ponder, and enjoy making conclusions about the place. Even now, we don't know the truth, but its going to be one hell of a ride to find out.

Written by Corey A. H. Koppelow


Bibliography
Parker Pearson M. (2012) Stonehenge, a New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument, Simon & Schuster, United Kingdom.

Picture from

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/#Section1

What it's like to work for a Commercial Archaeology Company

Working for a commercial archaeology company is hard work, just like any other kind of job. This one is just slightly more physically demanding than some others. But just like every other job it has its ups and downs.

Unlike a research dig where it’s only a few weeks on a site and sometimes have multiple seasons on that site (normally when the weather is nicer during that the summer months). Whereas a commercial dig, you dig when you are needed, meaning all year round. Digging in the rain, sunshine, thunder and lightning and snow. Waterproofs and thermals are definitely a good investment (especially with a British weather system it’s important to prepare for every eventuality).  Admittedly working in the rain isn’t too bad but working in the rain and wind can actually be really painful. The rain feels like a thousand knives hitting your face.

Another difference between a research dig and a commercial dig is you have to work within a schedule as they need to get going with their building work or whatever construction they are doing. Which means working quickly and efficiently but remaining to do a good job.

With a commercial archaeology company there is no point in doing an open excavation when there may not be any archaeology. So the area that is going to have construction will have numerous evaluation trenches which will show if an area has archaeology in it. If it has a lot of important archaeology in it then it may go into open excavation which would cost a lot more and, obviously take more time to dig.

Most archaeology companies will do more than just excavation they can also do things for example, GIS Mapping, Heritage statements, desk base services, watching briefs. All these things will can be utilised by construction companies to be able to achieve what they need to be able to go forward with their construction work.

Fun Facts and Strange Events

So this is where we talk about random fun facts that we’ve learnt during the week as well as any strange or interesting events. It’s the kind of stuff that you can keep in your memory bank for one those conversations when you really don’t know what to say (I bet you’re thinking about one right now). Each month we'll convert our blog into a fun fact zone, so if you have any that you would like to share with us then that’s your chance. Just pop a comment under the post, we’ll choose which one we think is the funniest/weirdest thing and you’ll get a special mention in the next Fun Facts blog.

Fun Fact #1: The city of Birmingham, UK, was recorded in the Doomsday Book, complied shortly after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. At the time it was only a small village so it’s value was placed at £1, as that was all the villagers could afford to give to their Lord.

Now lets have a strange event. On Thursday 10^th April in Chonqing, Southwest China, a beekeeper named She Ping asked his wife and fellow beekeepers to cover him with close to half a million bees. She Ping had performed the stunt a few times before, saying the first time was when he was 22 years old, he’s now 34, and he did it out of curiosity. His assistants wrapped the semi-naked man in plastic before coaxing the bees to stick to him, using incense and cigarettes to try and keep the 456,000 insects from covering his face. The ‘bee dress’ weighed approximately 45kg in total, with enough bees to fill 28 bee hives. Feeling “hot, suffocating and nervous” She Ping began to free himself after 40 minutes and 20 bee stings.

She Ping isn't actually the first person to 'wear' bees. It was a Saturday morning in July 1885 when an unfortunate man walking down Regent Street, London, became very attractive to a swarm of bees. Adhering to the Victorian stereotype the man tried to continue his walk without a fuss, however onlookers began following him to watch the strange activity. It wasn't until one passer-by instructed the man to take off his coat, that he finally able to get free of his buzzing friends. Messrs Mappin and Webb, his employers at a cutlery firm, wrote to the London Standard concerning the incident saying "We are pleased to say that the man is none the worse for this extraordinary visitation."

Fun fact #2: Perhaps not so fun but the first recorded case of prostate cancer is though to have been found in the remains of a 2700-year old Scythian king in Russia. The second oldest case was found in October 2011 when research was conducted on an Egyptian mummy dating to the Ptolemaic period (285-30 BC). You can read the full journal article on the 2011 research by clicking on the link at the bottom.

World War One can not be classed as a strange event but it was a strange way for a few inventions to be discovered. One of those was the sanitary towel. Originally Cellucotton was used in German and Austrian paper plants , however it was the US company Kimberly-Clark that realised the full potential of this super-absorbent material. When the US joined the war, Kimberly-Clark began mass-producing the material at around 380-500ft per minute and used it for surgical wadding. It was Red Cross nurses who discovered the unofficial use for the Cellucotton and in 1920, after two years of study and market research, it went on sale under the name Kotex. However as women were uncomfortable buying the product from male shop assistants, a new use for the material was found. In 1924 Kleenex was on shelves as the result of ironing the material to create a smooth and soft tissue.

In Berlin, 1918, it was recorded that half the children in the city were suffering from rickets which was thought to have been caused by poverty. Dr Kurt Huldschinsky noticed that many of his patients looked pale, so he came up with an experiment whereby he would position four children under mercury-quartz lamps, emitting ultraviolet light. The children's bones became stronger over time and once the results were published, children all of Germany were given the treatment. We now know that Vitamin D is essential for bones to become strong and healthy and the process is in fact triggered by ultraviolet light. Thanks Dr Huldschinsky!

You may have wondered who was responsible for the vegetarian sausage. No? just me then. Konrad Adenauer was the mayor of Cologne at the time and with the British blockage of Germany, the city began to starve. Adenauer came up with substitutes for meat and other hard to find items, eventually creating a sausage made of soy named Friedenswurst or "peace sausage". He was turned down for a patent in Germany as their opinion was that if it didn't contain meat, then it wasn't a sausage. Funnily enough he had better luck in Britain and the soy sausage patent was granted on 26 June 1918.

Finally, I want to tell you about the tea bag. Unlike the previous inventions it wasn't created as part of the war time effort, it just happened at around the same time. An American tea merchant in 1908 began sending his customer's tea in little bags. In turn they used them by placing them in hot water, whether by accident or on purpose we don't know. During the war Teekanne, a Germany tea company, used this method to send tea to the troops and gave the bags the name "tea bombs". That would make a cup of tea more exciting wouldn't it? On second thoughts, it may confuse Grandma.

Fun Fact #3: In the 1980's there was a great moral debate over the popular boardgame, Dungeons and Dragons. Many parents were concerned that the game was having a negative impact on their children. One mother tried to sue her son's high school principal after he ran a game during which she believed her son was cursed. She lost the case but she went on to form the group Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons, also known as BADD. She definitely felt that the game was a BADD influence on the younger generations (apologies for such a cheesy joke but it had to be done).

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879981711000271

Welcome, Bienvenue and Tervetuloa to All

Hello dear reader and welcome to our blog.

For us this all began three years ago when we each decided to attend university and study archaeology, in one one form or another. Despite the deadlines, fieldwork and occasional all-nighter, we graduated and our love of all things ancient continues. Between us, we have a very broad knowledge of archaeology and anthropology, with a bit of forensic science thrown in for good measure, so we will cover many things from human evolution up to World War Two. Anything after that is getting into Modern History territory and that's all a bit foreign to us.

If there's anything in particular that you would like us to cover or even if you just want to know more about something but wouldn't know where to start researching, then feel free to send us a message or comment and we'll do our best to help you.

We hope you enjoy following us on this grand adventure of writing a blog.


Grace and Carolina

PS: In case you're wondering "Tervetuloa" is apparantly "Welcome" in Finnish.