tingilinde

treasure!

The Staffordshire Hoard  (thanks for the link Sukie)

snip

About the hoard

Surge domine et dissipentur inimici tui et fugiant qui oderunt te a facie tua ~ "Rise up, o Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face"

The Staffordshire Hoard is an unparalleled treasure find dating from Anglo-Saxon times. Both the quality and quantity of this unique treasure are remarkable. The story of how it came to be left in the Staffordshire soil is likely to be more remarkable still.

The Hoard was first discovered in July 2009. The find is likely to spark decades of debate among archaeologists, historians and enthusiasts.

Leslie Webster, Former Keeper, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum, has already said:

This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England… as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries. Absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.

The Hoard

The Hoard comprises in excess 1,500 individual items. Most are gold, although some are silver. Many are decorated with precious stones. The quality of the craftsmanship displayed on many items is supreme, indicating possible royal ownership.

Stylistically most items appear to date from the seventh century, although there is already debate among experts about when the Hoard first entered the ground.

This was a period of great turmoil. England did not yet exist. A number of kingdoms with tribal loyalties vied with each other in a state of semi-perpetual warfare, with the balance of power constantly ebbing and flowing.

England was also split along religious lines. Christianity, introduced during the Roman occupation then driven to near extinction, was once again the principal religion across most of England

The exact spot where the Hoard lay hidden for a millennium and a half cannot yet be revealed. However we can say that it lay at the heart of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. There is approximately 5 kg of gold and 1.3 kg of silver (Sutton Hoo had 1.66kg of gold).

The hoard was reported to Duncan Slarke, Finds Liaison Officer with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. With the assistance of the finder, the find-spot has been excavated by archaeologists from Staffordshire County Council, lead by Ian Wykes and Steven Dean, and a team from Birmingham Archaeology, project managed by Bob Burrows and funded by English Heritage. The hoard has been examined at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by Dr Kevin Leahy, National Finds Adviser with the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The Coroner for South Staffordshire, Andrew Haigh, is today (24th September 2009) holding an inquest on the find to decide whether it is treasure under the Treasure Act 1996. If it is declared treasure, the find becomes the property of the Crown, and museums will have the opportunity to acquire it after it has been valued by the Treasure Valuation Committee. The Committee’s remit is to value all treasure finds at their full market value and the finder and landowner will divide the reward between them. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, and Staffordshire County Council wish to preserve the find for the West Midlands.

...

finally

but so late...

Britain finally apologizes for its horrible treatment of Alan Turing.  It is sad that such homophobia is still common on the planet.

Here is the text of the statement:

2009 has been a year of deep reflection - a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists, historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ - in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence - and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.

Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more lived in fear of conviction.

I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue.

But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate - by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices - that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.

So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better.

Gordon Brown

(thanks for the text Sara)

a livable planned community

Forest Hills Gardens in Queens (noted in Slate).  

A bit  different than the direction most of the US took after WWII.

where oz came from

From a podcast on today's walk - Leonard Lopate interviews Evan Schwartz on L. Frank Baum. 

I didn't realize the feminist link (or much else)

it started on coney island

Sukie notes the Charles Atlas story 

the business of the media - and saving it

Lots of argument and discussion on this point.  Jason Pontin of the Technology Review weighs in with more points to consider.

I don't agree with all of his points, but I don't believe Clay Shirky or Dave Winer are right either and I am not expert enough to have my own opinion.  I think we strap in and watch what happens.

the other celebration

February 12^th marks the 200^th anniversaries of the births of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.  I've talked about Darwin quite a bit, but Lincoln deserves some attention.

A good way to focus is through monuments built to commemorate the great leader and what better way than checking out what RoadsideAmerica has found.  If you are close to one of these take tomorrow off and make a visit.  The more patriotic might consider an educational family adventure during the year.  Imagine packing up Billy and Buffy and their reaction to the grow a beard Abe monument in Delphos, Kansas;  or their reaction to visiting the bronzed foundation of his boyhood home.  Imagine you and your spouse dressing the part and making  a lasting impression on their lives!

RoadsideAmerica is a fantastic resource for teaching your kids the wonders of democracy this physical world , and even the spiritual.  

Visit RSA  early and often.

larry and jan 20

Many people have stories about being in DC on Tuesday.  Not everyone had choice positions, but the experiences were still remarkable.

Here is Larry's

wedwood breaks

A tribute to Josiah Wedwood by Judith Flanders in the NY Times.

smashing heads

I was pointed to a book on aboriginal bison hunting in the Northern Plains. There were a few jumps near where I grew up and they were rich sources of arrow and even spear tips.  

Jack Brink writes about the activity bringing in current research in Imagining Head-Smashed-In.  Probably a great book for a curious teen and I managed to learn quite a bit.  These were very clever people.

While the book is spendy, a free pdf version exists online...