Archaeologica.org

Where did the ladies sleep?

In the Captain's chambers, of course!

In hammocks alongside the men. Cog, you're a dirty old man!

Speaking of women at war, there were several occasians where supposidly in the Civil War women cut their hair and posed as male soldiers. We all have to uninate every few miles of an infantry march--sqatting down to pee seems a bit unusall to the other troops. Of course, the monetary benefit once you reached camp could have been significant.

Women had a proud record in the RN Gunny. They served in two ways, official and unofficial.
One of the women aboard Victory at trafalgar was the wife of an officer and she served as an assistant to the ship's surgeon, a 'Loblolly Boy'.
90% of the RN casulaties on that day were aboard Victory, one of whom was her husband, who lost an arm, and she abandoned her post on the Orlop deck when Victory was boarded by the French and fought them before returning to her duties.
Other women served by disguising themselves as men.
Service in the RN often began at an age of 8yrs, Nelson signed on at 12 as a Midshipman, he was considered old.
The clothing was often nondescript as no official unform existed till lateish 19C. Most people had one set of clothes and wore them till they rotted.
About the 1830s a farm labourer would have been paid 4p a week and fed at the 'master's' table, if he married he would likely receive a cottage and be paid 5p a week, so he was much worse off.
Service in the RN was not that risky and the rewards could be enormous and was often seen as a better alternative to 'following the plow'.
And so the women followed their men to sea!
Toilet arrangemnets would not have given them away as the 'head' was usually a wide board fixed over the side and all would have squatted as 'pissing in the wind' was not to be recommended.
Women were normally only discovered if they needed the services of the surgeon, when they were treated, as were the men, to the best medical service in the world at that time.
They were not punished but were dismissed the service when the ship returned to port, they even on occasion received a pension for their service.

... and she abandoned her post on the Orlop deck when Victory was boarded by the French and fought them before returning to her duties.

I wouldn't want to be the Frenchie who faced her sword and musket! There's nothing more terrifying than a pissed off wife on a mission of annihilation.

They were a different breed Cog. Just look at the women who followed their men west across the great plains or Australia.

There's nothing more terrifying than a pissed off wife on a mission of annihilation.

Or in search of a shoe sale.

Does your good lady get a chance to read your comments Min?

Only if she looks over my shoulder.

Minimalist wrote:

There's nothing more terrifying than a pissed off wife on a mission of annihilation.

Or in search of a shoe sale.

LMAO!!

Here's a timely discussion of the Anasazi.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=11828089

This is where the Anasazi lived. Their ruins are everywhere out here, the remains of a great Neolithic civilization. Single buildings the size of the base of the Sears Tower. Huge, round ceremonial chambers with 90-ton ceilings. This was a landscape of monuments.

Coming down into this canyon I reach an ancient stairway. I can see where it was chiseled by hand, the hammer strokes of stone tools.

Damn. Should have looked here first before starting another thread. Mods please feel free to move my previous post here.

I don't know how to move anything.

Don't worry about it.

Anasazi cradleboards produced a slight flattening to the back of the skull called lambdoidal deformation. The mortuary ritual was generally characterized by burying the deceased in a flexed or fetal position.

I read somewhere that this post-mortem foetal position was regarded as a reiteration of the original foetal position ie- we start off in a cave-like environment and end up in one and the whole birth, death, birth, cycle goes around again: womb to tomb in fact. My reading has been a bit scattered of late as I just got me a heapin' helpin' of JSTOR articles (just joined the British Museum - yay!) which I've so far only had time to dip into at random, so it might have been there, or Patrick Tierney's The Highest Altar or even (dammit) something one of you lot said on the previous page. I need a secretary.