Tired isn't the proper word ... 19 days of rain and flood (and counting) is enough
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Thursday, July 11, 2013
Today in History
| 1302 | An army of French knights, led by the Count of Artois, is routed by Flemish pikemen. | |
| 1346 | Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany. | |
| 1533 | Henry VIII is excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Clement VII. | |
| 1708 | The French are defeated at Oudenarde, Malplaquet, in the Netherlands by the Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy. | |
| 1786 | Morocco agrees to stop attacking American ships in the Mediterranean for a payment of $10,000. | |
| 1799 | An Anglo-Turkish armada bombards Napoleon Bonaparte's troops in Alexandria to no avail. | |
| 1804 | Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded by Aaron Burr in a duel. | |
| 1862 | President Abraham Lincoln appoints General Henry Halleck as general in chief of the Federal army. | |
| 1942 | In the longest bombing raid of World War II, 1,750 British Lancaster bombers attack the Polish port of Danzig. | |
| 1972 | American forces break the 95-day siege at An Loc in Vietnam. | |
| 1975 | Archaeologists unearth an army of 8,000 life-size clay figures created more than 2,000 years ago for the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. | |
| 1995 | Full diplomatic relations are established between the United States and Vietnam. |
The Colorful Tales of Obsolete Art Pigments
Modern digital artists have millions of colors available, and modern painters have almost as many synthetic paints at their fingertips. But in the past, painters used pigments made from chemicals the natural world offered -and many of those are no longer used because they were dangerous, expensive, or made from sources no longer available -like endangered species. For example, the bygone pigment called Mummy Brown:
The pigment, a favored shade of the Pre-Raphaelites, was first made with Egyptian mummies, both cat and human, that were ground up and mixed with white pitch and myrrh. It had a great fleshy color, but due to the actual fleshy components it would crack over time. Martin Drölling, who painted the work shown above, reportedly used the mummies of French kings dug up from Saint-Denis in Paris. According to a 1964 Time story, the Mummy Brown pigment didn’t last due to a shortage of its name defining ingredient.You might be surprised at what's on those masterpieces in museums! Allison Meier at Hyperallergic tells the stories of some of those pigments of yore, in two posts because the first was so popular.
Link to part one.
Link to part two
Did you know ...
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A Backlash Coming for Racist repugican cabal?
Several repugican-led states have already rushed to capitalize on the Supreme
Court's recent rejection of the Voting Rights Act, but some say the price for threatening MLK's
dream could be a nightmare for the repugican cabal.
Indeed, the high court could hardly have picked a more historically fraught moment to roll back a major civil rights law -- just two months before the 50th anniversary of the King's March on Washington.
It was a watershed moment -- a moment when hundreds of thousands of Americans turned out to hear King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech and to show a strength of numbers that helped propel the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Fifty years later, with the racist Supreme Court having stricken the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama are already moving ahead to enact new ballot restrictions.
Suddenly, the next march on Washington, set for Aug. 24, 2013, promised to be less a stroll down memory lane and more the writing of a new chapter of history.
The repugican cabal's dilemma remains:
They can't win unless they move to the Left and they're not moving so they're not winning.
Indeed, the high court could hardly have picked a more historically fraught moment to roll back a major civil rights law -- just two months before the 50th anniversary of the King's March on Washington.
It was a watershed moment -- a moment when hundreds of thousands of Americans turned out to hear King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech and to show a strength of numbers that helped propel the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Fifty years later, with the racist Supreme Court having stricken the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama are already moving ahead to enact new ballot restrictions.
Suddenly, the next march on Washington, set for Aug. 24, 2013, promised to be less a stroll down memory lane and more the writing of a new chapter of history.
The repugican cabal's dilemma remains:
They can't win unless they move to the Left and they're not moving so they're not winning.
Ten Spiritually Transmitted Diseases
It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas--power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis -- as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.
Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive -- men and women, gays and straights alike.
As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly "infected" by "conceptual contaminants" -- comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.
The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.
1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.
2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.
3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be "the one."
4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.
5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is "bullet-proof." When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.
6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and -- bam! -- you're enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.
7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of "spiritual superiority" is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that "I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual."
8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with "group mind" reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.
9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that "Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group." There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.
10. The Deadly Virus: "I Have Arrived": This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that "I have arrived" at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.
"The essence of love is perception," according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, "Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly--including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself."
It is in the spirit of Marc's teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.
Adapted from Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path (Sounds True)
US farm subsidy policies contribute to worsening obesity trends
Agricultural subsidies are responsible for making those
processed and energy-dense foods that contribute to the American
epidemic of obesity the most affordable options for consumers. That’s
the conclusion of a new study led by Dr. [...]
Car with mounted "gun" panics Detroit suburb
Matthew says: "A Detroit man was arrested for driving an armor-plated military vehicle equipped with a World War II .50-caliber machine gun that had been converted to fire compressed gas."
Victim makes teen car prowlers face up to crime spree
When Eliza Webb found a cellphone inside her
ransacked vehicle in West Seattle last month, she figured the cellphone
probably belonged to the person who’d prowled her car and that that
person was likely a teen. But Webb decided not to call police.
Eliza Webb and her husband, Blake, hold some of the things found with her car -- items that don't belong to either of them.
Webb, who works with high-school students and is married to a man who has paid dearly for a youthful indiscretion, paused before summoning police.
“I think bringing the police and courts into something like this can have long-term, devastating consequences for kids,” said Webb, 29, of West Seattle.
“I wanted to meet him, talk to his parents and see if there might be another way. I felt that if I could get him to own up to what he’d done and understand there were consequences, it could be a much better outcome.”
What Webb ended up doing — taking the 19-year-old and a cohort door-to-door through her neighborhood to apologize and return items they’d stolen from 13 unlocked cars — ended up making a lasting impression not only on the boys and their families, but also on many of her neighbors.
“When people say it takes a village, this is exactly what they are talking about,” said Lincoln Park neighbor Heather McKee. “I was so impressed that someone would take the time to do this when they were not their own kids.”
The teen who left his phone in the car, and his mother — both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity so that the incident would not follow him — said they were grateful for the experience.
“At first I thought she should press charges,” said the teen’s mother. “I thought it would be the only way he would learn that there are consequences for criminal activity. But after I talked to Eliza and her husband, I saw how disastrous that could be.”
The teen said, “I was astonished at how bad my judgment is when I’ve been drinking and I don’t want to risk my freedom over something stupid.”
Sharing cautionary tale
When Webb found her car ransacked the morning of June 14, her initial thought was that her husband had been looking for something in the dark. But she soon found the unfamiliar cellphone on the seat and discovered that her gym bag had been rifled and her running shoes and sunglasses were missing.
She opened the phone and began going through text messages and phone contacts. She pushed the contact listed as “Mom” and reached the prowler’s mother.
“She was wonderful,” Webb said. “She said she would support whatever decision I made, and she invited me to go to her house and talk to her son.”
When Webb and her husband got to the house, about five blocks from their own, she found the 19-year-old and his twin sister crying.
The teen quickly owned up to what he had done, said his actions had been fueled by alcohol and boredom, and apologized.
Webb’s husband then told the teen his own story.
When he was 20, Blake Webb was charged with underage drinking after he went out partying with friends and decided to walk home rather than get in a car. An officer saw him on the road, asked whether he’d consumed any alcohol and Webb told the truth.
Although he is now a dosimetrist, calculating radiation doses at a cancer-research facility, Blake Webb still has to disclose that criminal conviction on job, rental and school applications 12 years later, his wife said.
“We just wanted him to know that everybody does things they wish they could take back, but some things will be on your record forever,” she said.
Running into obstacles
The teen also admitted that he and his friend had prowled about 12 additional cars that night, Webb said.
“That stopped me,” said Webb. “I originally went there to talk to him and get my things back, but now we were talking about other victims.”
But Webb said her understanding was that there had been no damage to any of the vehicles because they had all been unlocked, like her car. She asked the teen if he would be willing to return the stolen items to the owners and try to make things right.
The teen agreed, but said the stolen items were in the trunk of a friend’s car.
“I didn’t really want to rat him out,” the teen explained Wednesday, “but all the stuff was in his car.”
Webb said she, her husband and the 19-year-old went to the second teen’s house, where they spoke to a “very disappointed and dismayed” father who rousted his sleeping 18-year-old.
When Webb explained what had happened, the second teen agreed to go along with them. They gathered the pilfered items — cellphones and laptop chargers, sunglasses, a fedora, Webb’s gym shoes — and headed back to Webb’s cul-de-sac.
Another obstacle emerged: The teens couldn’t remember which cars they’d prowled.
So Webb took them door-to-door, visiting every house on the cul-de-sac, so the teens could explain to the residents what they’d done, display the items they’d taken and apologize.
“They seemed very embarrassed and contrite,” said McKee.
Most neighbors thanked Webb and praised the teens for what they were doing. A few scolded and lectured the teens, and others shared stories about the trauma of being the victim of a crime.
“I think it was good for them to hear how something that seems as minor as this can really rob people of their sense of security,” said Webb.
They were not able to find every victim that morning, but Webb said they left word that the stolen items could be retrieved at her house. Since then, only one person has contacted Webb to retrieve belongings, but many have stopped by to talk about what she did.
Webb said her block has an annual summer party and the teens have agreed to write a letter of apology that will be read at this year’s event.
“I’m actually kind of glad it happened,” said the 19-year-old. “It felt terrible to hear that people are worried and feel like they have to lock the door because of what I did. In a funny way, I feel closer to my neighbors and kind of look forward to seeing them around in different circumstances.”
His mother said, “I’m deeply grateful to Eliza for taking the time to become personally involved with my son and giving him the chance to go face-to-face with the people he victimized and make amends.
“Kids need somebody besides their own parents looking at them and holding them accountable. She did a beautiful thing.”
Abusive debt collector hit with record fine
In its complaint, the FTC charged that the companies violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the FTC Act by using tactics such as calling consumers multiple times per day, calling even after being asked to stop, calling early in the morning or late at night, calling consumers’ workplaces despite knowing that the employers prohibited such calls, and leaving phone messages that disclosed the debtor’s name, and the existence of the debt, to third parties. According to the FTC’s complaint, the companies also continued collection efforts without verifying the debt, even after consumers said they did not owe it.
Compensation for woman forced to wear bunny ears as penalty for missing sales targets
A 61-year-old Japanese woman was forced to wear bunny ears as a penalty
for missing her sales targets, with photos of her humiliation used in
company training programs.
The woman, who was not named, was employed by cosmetics maker Kanebo in south-western Oita.
She sued the company claiming mental distress after her bosses instructed her to don costumes if she did not meet her targets, including over-sized rabbit ears on one occasion. Four of her seniors took pictures of her in the outfits and used the snaps in presentation slides during training programs.
The woman claimed the company's actions had caused mental suffering that resulted in physical sickness and had demanded 3.3 million yen (£22,000, $32,600) compensation. A court upheld her complaint, but ordered the company to pay just 220,000 yen (£1,460, $2,755). According to her lawyer the firm has given her a larger sum than this.
The woman, who was not named, was employed by cosmetics maker Kanebo in south-western Oita.
She sued the company claiming mental distress after her bosses instructed her to don costumes if she did not meet her targets, including over-sized rabbit ears on one occasion. Four of her seniors took pictures of her in the outfits and used the snaps in presentation slides during training programs.
The woman claimed the company's actions had caused mental suffering that resulted in physical sickness and had demanded 3.3 million yen (£22,000, $32,600) compensation. A court upheld her complaint, but ordered the company to pay just 220,000 yen (£1,460, $2,755). According to her lawyer the firm has given her a larger sum than this.
Police anti-theft banner stolen from roadside
A police banner advertising the use of covert capture cars has been stolen.
Officers think the yellow sign, which was attached to a trailer parked on Great Western Way in Tiverton, Devon, was taken on Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Covert capture cars, which are rigged with CCTV cameras and parked in crime hotspots, were brought in after a number of thefts from vehicles in the Canal Hill area of the town. Sgt Jane Alford-Mole said: “The sign was cable tied to the trailer and we think someone took it after having a few drinks.
“They should bear in mind that it was there to try and assist members of the public and this theft is a crime against the community. It was also a new sign and had been bought using taxpayers’ money.” Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the banner is asked to call police
Officers think the yellow sign, which was attached to a trailer parked on Great Western Way in Tiverton, Devon, was taken on Saturday night or in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Covert capture cars, which are rigged with CCTV cameras and parked in crime hotspots, were brought in after a number of thefts from vehicles in the Canal Hill area of the town. Sgt Jane Alford-Mole said: “The sign was cable tied to the trailer and we think someone took it after having a few drinks.
“They should bear in mind that it was there to try and assist members of the public and this theft is a crime against the community. It was also a new sign and had been bought using taxpayers’ money.” Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the banner is asked to call police
Egyptian photojournalist captures own death on video during protests
Akhmed Samir Assem, a 26 year old Egyptian photojournalist, was
recording Republican Guard soldiers shooting at a crowd of Muslim
Brotherhood protesters in Cairo when one Army soldier he was filming
turned his gun to the camera and shot the journalist dead. On film.It’s not graphic. It is however chilling.
According to the Telegraph,
the protesters were kneeling in prayer outside a Republican Guard
officer’s club, where recently-ousted President Mohammed Morsi was
believed to be held, when security forces opened fire on them, killing
51 people.
I found a few photos of Akhmed via a video link posted on his Facebook page – he really was a kid:
I found a few photos of Akhmed via a video link posted on his Facebook page – he really was a kid:
In Afghanistan, some poor female carpet weavers feed their babies hashish
Author, proto-warblogger and former CNN and NBC correspondent Kevin Site is back in Afghanistan reporting for VICE.
It's really strong work. One of the pieces he's sent back so far is a fascinating look at a traditional practice among many poor, rural carpet loomers: feeding hashish to their young children. Think of the drug as a kind of babysitter, for impoverished women who are forced to labor at hard work for impossibly long hours in harsh conditions. Snip:
It's really strong work. One of the pieces he's sent back so far is a fascinating look at a traditional practice among many poor, rural carpet loomers: feeding hashish to their young children. Think of the drug as a kind of babysitter, for impoverished women who are forced to labor at hard work for impossibly long hours in harsh conditions. Snip:
Like most women in Afghanistan’s Qalizal District, Bebehaja’s life is told on the strings of a carpet loom. It’s a vocational inheritance of women of Turkmen heritage, who begin as early as seven and may not stop until they’re 70. It’s as linear and taut as the cords on which they weave, unspooling balls of yarn over minutes, hours, days, decades creating masterful motifs, while simultaneously emptying themselves of the same beauty and comfort they put into the things that they create. Bebehaja is 60 now. She’s covered in a stained, blue burqua so I can’t see her face, but I hear the weariness in her voice. She tells me the dirty secret that everyone knows: the most important material in carpet making in Qalizal is not wool, but hashish.Read the full report here. You can read more of Kevin's dispatches from Afghanistan here. You can also follow Kevin on Twitter.
“When we don’t eat the hashish we’re like a dead body,” she says. “When we eat it we can work hard and work more.”
Tibetan monks shot by Chinese police for praying on Dalai Lama’s birthday
The International Campaign for Tibet reports that "Two Tibetan monks were shot in the head and several others seriously injured after Chinese police opened fire at a crowd gathered to peacefully celebrate the 78th birthday of the Dalai Lama in Nyitso, Tawu, eastern Tibet, on Saturday (July 6)."
Climate change creating "heat islands" for blacks, Asians, Latinos in US
Writing at GRIST, Susie Cagle points to a new study
published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which finds
that "not all neighborhoods and racial groups are faring equally" as
climate change raises temps in urban areas: "According to the research,
blacks, Asians, and Latinos are all significantly more likely to live
in high-risk heat-island conditions than white people."
In the News
Death Valley National Park has asked tourists not to test out
the reputation of the world's hottest spot by frying eggs on the
ground.
Microbes that live inside fish intestines are among the array
of life that appear to have been found in ice drilled from above Lake
Vostok.
Who needs herbicides and machinery when you've got a herd of hungry goats?
At the Core ...
New idea tackles Earth core puzzle
Scientists have proposed a radical new model for the make-up of the Earth's core.
- Earth's core far hotter than thought
- 'New metal type' at Earth's core
- X-rays journey to centre of Earth
- Magnetic mysteries of Earth's Core
Archaeologists urge public to head for the hillforts
Archaeologists are encouraging
members of the public to get involved in a major project to map all the
hillforts across Britain and Ireland.
The research team from Oxford and
Edinburgh universities, in collaboration with University College Cork,
is aiming to create the first online database listing information on
around 5,000 hillforts.
Called An Atlas of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland, the final database will be a freely available resource for the public to find out more about their local monuments which, according to the scholars, have been the subject of very little research until now.
The vast scale of the project means that the researchers will rely on volunteers to identify and record the characteristics of thousands of forts. They are seeking information not only about the upstanding, well-preserved forts but also the sites where only cropmarks and remnants indicate where forts once stood.
From today, members of the public can start to feed information about the characteristics of their local hillfort into online forms on the project website.
Details such as the style and number of ramparts, ditches or entrances will help build up a complete picture of the regional variations and patterns. One big question that the researchers want to examine is how hillforts were used, and whether their purpose varied greatly across different regions of Britain and Ireland.
The four-year project is being funded through the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The database will eventually be freely searchable by region and by various hillfort characteristics, and be linked to Google Earth/Maps so that each fort can be seen within its landscape setting. The aim is to produce both an online searchable atlas and a paper atlas showing and analyzing the different characteristics and regional variations.
Gary Lock, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford and co-director of the project, said: 'There is huge variety in where the hillforts were sited and the materials used to construct them. Hillforts in the upland areas are often stone-built, while those in lowland areas are often made of timber and earth.
'Some were constructed in prominent positions on the very top of hills, while others were on slopes or not even on hills at all. We want to shed new light on why they were created and how they were used.'
Co-director Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'We are keen to see what the citizen science approach will reveal. We hope that the public, including archaeological societies, will get behind this project as it should lead to the discovery of new sites and new information about sites that are considered to be well-known.
'We expect the results of this project to change our vision of these iconic monuments.'
Hillforts are one of the most prominent and obvious types of prehistoric monument and yet, according to the researchers, relatively little is known about how their individual characteristics vary, both nationally and regionally. Most hillforts were built from about 700 BC, although some were constructed earlier. In most of England, they were used primarily until the Romans arrived in the middle of the first century AD, but they continued to be used for much longer in other parts of Britain and Ireland.
Despite the name, there is very limited evidence to suggest that hillforts had a military purpose. It is believed they were more commonly used as settlements that were occupied for short periods and could have been meeting places for dispersed communities to gather for religious activities and festivals, and market days.
Hillforts across Britain and Ireland vary hugely in size – one of the biggest is Ham Hill in Somerset with an enclosed area of over 80 hectares. Much smaller examples, with enclosed spaces of below one hectare, are in Argyll or parts of west Wales.
Maiden Castle in Dorset can claim to be one of the most complex Iron Age hillforts in Europe, with huge multiple ramparts. However, other sites are enclosed very differently, like the Late Bronze Age Class 2 forts in Ireland, which have widely spaced banks.
 |
| Tap o' Noth hillfort, Aberdeenshire [Credit: Atlas of Hillforts Project] |
Called An Atlas of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland, the final database will be a freely available resource for the public to find out more about their local monuments which, according to the scholars, have been the subject of very little research until now.
The vast scale of the project means that the researchers will rely on volunteers to identify and record the characteristics of thousands of forts. They are seeking information not only about the upstanding, well-preserved forts but also the sites where only cropmarks and remnants indicate where forts once stood.
From today, members of the public can start to feed information about the characteristics of their local hillfort into online forms on the project website.
Details such as the style and number of ramparts, ditches or entrances will help build up a complete picture of the regional variations and patterns. One big question that the researchers want to examine is how hillforts were used, and whether their purpose varied greatly across different regions of Britain and Ireland.
The four-year project is being funded through the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The database will eventually be freely searchable by region and by various hillfort characteristics, and be linked to Google Earth/Maps so that each fort can be seen within its landscape setting. The aim is to produce both an online searchable atlas and a paper atlas showing and analyzing the different characteristics and regional variations.
Gary Lock, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Oxford and co-director of the project, said: 'There is huge variety in where the hillforts were sited and the materials used to construct them. Hillforts in the upland areas are often stone-built, while those in lowland areas are often made of timber and earth.
'Some were constructed in prominent positions on the very top of hills, while others were on slopes or not even on hills at all. We want to shed new light on why they were created and how they were used.'
Co-director Ian Ralston, Abercromby Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'We are keen to see what the citizen science approach will reveal. We hope that the public, including archaeological societies, will get behind this project as it should lead to the discovery of new sites and new information about sites that are considered to be well-known.
'We expect the results of this project to change our vision of these iconic monuments.'
Hillforts are one of the most prominent and obvious types of prehistoric monument and yet, according to the researchers, relatively little is known about how their individual characteristics vary, both nationally and regionally. Most hillforts were built from about 700 BC, although some were constructed earlier. In most of England, they were used primarily until the Romans arrived in the middle of the first century AD, but they continued to be used for much longer in other parts of Britain and Ireland.
Despite the name, there is very limited evidence to suggest that hillforts had a military purpose. It is believed they were more commonly used as settlements that were occupied for short periods and could have been meeting places for dispersed communities to gather for religious activities and festivals, and market days.
Hillforts across Britain and Ireland vary hugely in size – one of the biggest is Ham Hill in Somerset with an enclosed area of over 80 hectares. Much smaller examples, with enclosed spaces of below one hectare, are in Argyll or parts of west Wales.
Maiden Castle in Dorset can claim to be one of the most complex Iron Age hillforts in Europe, with huge multiple ramparts. However, other sites are enclosed very differently, like the Late Bronze Age Class 2 forts in Ireland, which have widely spaced banks.
Finds hint at major Viking trade center
When archaeologists Geir Grønnesby
and Ellen Grav Ellingsen found these and other artefacts during a dig in
central Norway, they realized they had intriguing evidence of a
Viking-age trading area mentioned in the Norse Sagas.
The finds came from two separate
boat graves in an area in Nord-Trøndelag County called Lø, a farm in
part of Steinkjer. The archaeologists, who both work at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology's University Museum, were there to
conduct a routine investigation required because of an upgrade to
Norway's main national highway, the E6.
But instead of a simple highway dig, the researchers found themselves with a potential answer to an unsolved puzzle about a mysterious Viking trading place that is named in ancient sagas, but that has never before been located.
"These finds got us thinking about the descriptions in the Sagas that describe Steinkjer as a trading place," the researchers wrote of their findings in Vitark, an academic journal published by the University Museum from Dec. 2012. "The Sagas say that Steinkjer, under the rule of Eirik Jarl, was briefly even more important than Nidaros, before Olav Haraldsson re-established Nidaros as the king's residence and trading city.
Norway's medieval capital
Nidaros, now the modern city of Trondheim, was Norway's capital during Viking times, and the country's religious centre. The world's northernmost Gothic Cathedral, Nidarosdomen, was built in Trondheim, with its first stones laid in 1070 over the grave of Olav Haraldsson. The oldest existing parts of the cathedral date from 1183.
As a medieval city and a religious capital, Nidaros played an important role in international trade throughout the Middle Ages. The Lewis Chessmen, an exquisite set of 12th century chess pieces worked out of walrus ivory and whales' teeth, are widely believed to have been crafted in the Trondheim/Nidaros area, and traded away.
Olav Haraldsson was the Norwegian king who is often credited with bringing Christianity to Norway and whose sainthood, first proclaimed in 1031, a year after his death, was confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1164.
Not surprisingly, he features in a number of different Norse and Icelandic sagas. It was these sagas that mention a major trading place in Steinkjer that was even larger than Nidaros. But until archaeologists started the dig in Lø, they had few clues as to where this Viking-age commercial powerhouse might be found.
1000 years of dirt and development
Archaeologists seeking to find a 1000-year-old trading place have precious few leads to pursue. Almost certainly there were no permanent buildings, which would be the easiest to find, and many items that would have been traded would be made of organic materials that might not survive the ravages of the centuries.
Apart from finding obvious clues, such as coins or metal or glass items that were clearly from foreign lands, archeologists have to rely on much more subtle evidence that can stand the test of time.
One such hint that a location might be a trading place is the geography of the place itself, the researchers wrote in Vitark.
"Even though there is no archaeological proof that there was a trading place in Steinkjer during Viking times, there are several aspects that support this idea," the researchers wrote.
Most importantly, they note, Steinjker is located in a natural trading areas, at the mouth of a river at the innermost part of Trondheim fjord. It is also in a place where farmers have been working flat fields for centuries.
Swords, beads and jewelry
Another clue that archaeologists use to locate the possible trading place is a detailed map of the locations of all kinds of different archaeological finds that might suggest trade.
The logic here is that greater numbers of traded goods are more likely to be found in close proximity to a place of trade, with fewer traded goods found farther and farther from trading areas.
So the researchers plotted all relevant finds from Nord-Trøndelag County, and again and again, the finds suggested a major trading area in Steinkjer.
Beads made of amber and glass are commonly traded, and the area around Steinkjer was rich with finds of these goods, with 254 beads found in 28 different locales, the researchers said.
While nearby Stjørdal had a higher number of bead finds – 485 beads, all told – the researchers noted that most of those beads came from two large finds, which makes it less likely that the beads were linked directly to a trading place.
Twenty-two examples of a special kind of Viking-age sword, called the H sword based on the design of its hilt and one that is associated with trade, were also found in Steinkjer, the most of any area in Nord-Trøndelag.
Five of six pieces of imported jewelry found in Nord-Trøndelag were found in Steinkjer, while six of 10 imported brooches from Nord-Trøndelag also came from Steinkjer.
Scales and a button
While beads, swords and imported jewelry help suggest that Steinkjer was home to a major trading place, two specific finds, in boat graves in Lø, were among the most persuasive finds.
One, a silver button made of braided silver threads that appears to have originated in the British Isles, suggests that the person in the grave had a high status.
The second is a set of balance scales found in another boat grave. The balance scales were constructed in a way that led the archaeologists to believe it came from the west – not from Norway.
Scales themselves naturally suggest trade, and when the researchers looked at all the scales found in Nord-Trøndelag, they again found a clear concentration in the Steinkjer area.
Under the church, in the city center
If all of these concentrations of finds support the location of a major trading place in Steinkjer as mentioned in the Norse sagas, then where is it?
Here, the archaeologists can only make an educated guess. Based on the fact that sea levels were four or five meters higher in this area 1000 years ago, the location of the existing church in Steinkjer is the most logical place for the trading place to have been, the researchers say.
But confirmation of the fact that Steinkjer was a major trading area in the Viking age raises yet another puzzle: If Steinkjer was such an important area for international trade, why did trade eventually shift to Trondheim, as it did?
Grønnesby says that the shift in trading areas was surely due to the tremendous power struggles between different rulers in the area. Nidaros along with Levanger, another trading area, simply had more support than Steinkjer. "We see that Steinkjer disappears in the sources in the Middle Ages while the same sources show that (nearby) Levanger was a trading post," he notes.
Nevertheless, determining the exact answer will require finding more than silver buttons, scales and beads – and may be an answer that we will never really know.
 |
| Balance scale found by archaeologists in a boat grave north of Trondheim, Norway [Credit: Per Fredriksen] |
But instead of a simple highway dig, the researchers found themselves with a potential answer to an unsolved puzzle about a mysterious Viking trading place that is named in ancient sagas, but that has never before been located.
"These finds got us thinking about the descriptions in the Sagas that describe Steinkjer as a trading place," the researchers wrote of their findings in Vitark, an academic journal published by the University Museum from Dec. 2012. "The Sagas say that Steinkjer, under the rule of Eirik Jarl, was briefly even more important than Nidaros, before Olav Haraldsson re-established Nidaros as the king's residence and trading city.
Norway's medieval capital
Nidaros, now the modern city of Trondheim, was Norway's capital during Viking times, and the country's religious centre. The world's northernmost Gothic Cathedral, Nidarosdomen, was built in Trondheim, with its first stones laid in 1070 over the grave of Olav Haraldsson. The oldest existing parts of the cathedral date from 1183.
As a medieval city and a religious capital, Nidaros played an important role in international trade throughout the Middle Ages. The Lewis Chessmen, an exquisite set of 12th century chess pieces worked out of walrus ivory and whales' teeth, are widely believed to have been crafted in the Trondheim/Nidaros area, and traded away.
Olav Haraldsson was the Norwegian king who is often credited with bringing Christianity to Norway and whose sainthood, first proclaimed in 1031, a year after his death, was confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1164.
Not surprisingly, he features in a number of different Norse and Icelandic sagas. It was these sagas that mention a major trading place in Steinkjer that was even larger than Nidaros. But until archaeologists started the dig in Lø, they had few clues as to where this Viking-age commercial powerhouse might be found.
1000 years of dirt and development
Archaeologists seeking to find a 1000-year-old trading place have precious few leads to pursue. Almost certainly there were no permanent buildings, which would be the easiest to find, and many items that would have been traded would be made of organic materials that might not survive the ravages of the centuries.
Apart from finding obvious clues, such as coins or metal or glass items that were clearly from foreign lands, archeologists have to rely on much more subtle evidence that can stand the test of time.
 |
| An assortment of finds, including swords, silver buttons and a balance scale, suggest that archaeologists had stumbled upon an important trading site in Steinkjer, north of Trondheim, Norway [Credit: Åge Hojem, NTNU University Museum] |
"Even though there is no archaeological proof that there was a trading place in Steinkjer during Viking times, there are several aspects that support this idea," the researchers wrote.
Most importantly, they note, Steinjker is located in a natural trading areas, at the mouth of a river at the innermost part of Trondheim fjord. It is also in a place where farmers have been working flat fields for centuries.
Swords, beads and jewelry
Another clue that archaeologists use to locate the possible trading place is a detailed map of the locations of all kinds of different archaeological finds that might suggest trade.
The logic here is that greater numbers of traded goods are more likely to be found in close proximity to a place of trade, with fewer traded goods found farther and farther from trading areas.
So the researchers plotted all relevant finds from Nord-Trøndelag County, and again and again, the finds suggested a major trading area in Steinkjer.
Beads made of amber and glass are commonly traded, and the area around Steinkjer was rich with finds of these goods, with 254 beads found in 28 different locales, the researchers said.
While nearby Stjørdal had a higher number of bead finds – 485 beads, all told – the researchers noted that most of those beads came from two large finds, which makes it less likely that the beads were linked directly to a trading place.
Twenty-two examples of a special kind of Viking-age sword, called the H sword based on the design of its hilt and one that is associated with trade, were also found in Steinkjer, the most of any area in Nord-Trøndelag.
Five of six pieces of imported jewelry found in Nord-Trøndelag were found in Steinkjer, while six of 10 imported brooches from Nord-Trøndelag also came from Steinkjer.
Scales and a button
While beads, swords and imported jewelry help suggest that Steinkjer was home to a major trading place, two specific finds, in boat graves in Lø, were among the most persuasive finds.
One, a silver button made of braided silver threads that appears to have originated in the British Isles, suggests that the person in the grave had a high status.
The second is a set of balance scales found in another boat grave. The balance scales were constructed in a way that led the archaeologists to believe it came from the west – not from Norway.
Scales themselves naturally suggest trade, and when the researchers looked at all the scales found in Nord-Trøndelag, they again found a clear concentration in the Steinkjer area.
Under the church, in the city center
If all of these concentrations of finds support the location of a major trading place in Steinkjer as mentioned in the Norse sagas, then where is it?
Here, the archaeologists can only make an educated guess. Based on the fact that sea levels were four or five meters higher in this area 1000 years ago, the location of the existing church in Steinkjer is the most logical place for the trading place to have been, the researchers say.
But confirmation of the fact that Steinkjer was a major trading area in the Viking age raises yet another puzzle: If Steinkjer was such an important area for international trade, why did trade eventually shift to Trondheim, as it did?
Grønnesby says that the shift in trading areas was surely due to the tremendous power struggles between different rulers in the area. Nidaros along with Levanger, another trading area, simply had more support than Steinkjer. "We see that Steinkjer disappears in the sources in the Middle Ages while the same sources show that (nearby) Levanger was a trading post," he notes.
Nevertheless, determining the exact answer will require finding more than silver buttons, scales and beads – and may be an answer that we will never really know.
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