Archaeologica.org

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01arch.html

Are any of you guys going to this? I'm on the other coast so no luck for me. It sounds absolutely fascinating. I know next to nothing about this culture.

One of the things that tugs at me about archaeology is the idea that entire civilizations, let alone towns, villages, bands, individuals, have been forgotten.

JSteen wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01arch.html

Are any of you guys going to this? I'm on the other coast so no luck for me. It sounds absolutely fascinating. I know next to nothing about this culture.

I'm on another coast too... and would of course love to go see it. The Scythians. Although it is the 7,000 years preceding that era – the history of Euxine Lake – that I'm even more interested in. The history of the still lower lower Danube, as it were.

However, I'm going to 'treat' myself to an eyeball of 1,8 million years old Dmanisi Man, this week. The best preserved HE skull of the five found in Georgia, including a jaw, is on display in an exhibition in the Naturalis Museum in Leiden, the Netherlands, for 3 months. It arrived last Thursday amid a lot of press attention, in a box chained to the wrist of the Director of Antiquities of Georgia as if it were the Cullinan diamond. It is the first time ever that it is on display for the general public since Georgia doesn't have the 'wherewithal' (air conditioning, climate and humidity control, and security arrangements) for that.

http://www.naturalis.nl/asp/page.asp?al ... Fhome.html

http://www.naturalis.nl/asp/page.asp?al ... Fhome.html




He wasn't pretty:

But prettier than much later HN, imho.

One of the things that tugs at me about archaeology is the idea that entire civilizations, let alone towns, villages, bands, individuals, have been forgotten.

That's why we are here! To yank those (hi)stories from the claws of oblivion. That is our task.

Looks like my boss.

uniface wrote:Looks like my boss.

Looks like the guy who lives upstairs from me!

Wow, lucky you - and thanks for the link and pics. He was 20 years old and only 1.4 meters tall? Why was I thinking that Homo Erectus was tall? I've been reading too much and getting confused I think. I'm going to go read up some more on this skull now. thx.

Rokcet, since you're familiar with that area, are there henges dating from that time? Earth or wood or stone? The article says there doesn't seem to be any religious spaces in the settlements so they're guessing that religion took place in the home. I thought I remembered reading about large stone circles in that area going way back though. Do you know off the top of your head?

Now I'm curious about your 7K prior lower lower Danube interest. Will google around and see what I can find. : )

JSteen wrote:Rokcet, since you're familiar with that area [...]

Not really: it's 2,000 miles from here in a land I'd go to only if you paid me a premium. They can't even afford air conditioning for their most esteemed countryman! Let alone for me...

Besides: henges are associated with the late stone age – 4,000 to 7,000 years BP. Dmanisi Man lived 1,793,000 years earlier.
I think I can confidently gamble HE didn't build any henges...

No, but it seems to me that the guys covered by the exhibit linked above might have/probably did. There's no mention of it in the article and they even say there's no evidence of big religious sites! This is a little question that's bugging me and I can't find any info. Oh well, will have to wait for exhibit catalog to arrive. Am getting it for xmas and the blurb says it's the biggest collection of info on these people in english in you can find. Fingers crossed.

I cannot remember where I read it, but I believe there are persevered Viking hill forts one days float apart on the Danube. (It may have been the Dnepr.)

They were never mentioned in any class I ever took.

One of my dream trips, before I die, is the river cruse that starts at the mouth of the Rhine, goes upstream into the mountains, goes through the canal and then descends the Danube.

Talk about history passing by as you sit on deck and sip!

kbs2244 wrote:Talk about history passing by as you sit on deck and sip!

Better lay off the booze and read, read, read your ass off if you want to appreciate that history.

Still better: disembark and do that trip overland. So you can stop or detour at your leisure to visit the hundreds of castles, churches, fortifications, etc. Which is where it happened: history.
On a Rhine/Danube cruise, on a ship, you can't do that: history literally passes you by without you being able to touch it, or even seeing it up close.

But the boat might have air conditioning.

JSteen wrote: But the boat might have air conditioning.

As AD 2009 motorcars do... and the comfortable, little mom & pop hotels or bed & breakfasts in picturesque medieval provincial town centers conveniently near to equally decked out, excellent but dirt-cheap restaurants and pubs... And wherever you look it's oozing with history.
It is the 21st century in Europe too, you know. Bring your iPhones, your NetBooks, your game consoles, and/or your laptops. Amazingly, they all work...!
(What do you think I'm doing right now...?)

Oh, and you can never ever get lost: TomTom is a European company. GPS navigation is ubiquitous. Combined with mobile phones and Google Earth on your WiFi connected laptop it's impossible to get lost.

If you do a "D-I-Y" trip, and read up good in advance, you'll get 10 times more history, at half the cost of what you'd get sitting on your butt on a Rhine/Danube cruise ship... At least as comfortably. And with a dash of adventurism thrown in.

That will have to be the second trip.

I kind of like the idea of only unpacking one time and going to the same bedroom every night.

But I have no doubt you are right about seeing more.
My problem is that it would turn into a 5 year trip.

kbs2244 wrote:I cannot remember where I read it, but I believe there are persevered Viking hill forts one days float apart on the Danube. (It may have been the Dnepr.)!

I'm pretty sure it would have been the Dnieper some fragmentary info around.

kbs2244 wrote:That will have to be the second trip.

I kind of like the idea of only unpacking one time and going to the same bedroom every night.

Of course: that's most convenient and most comfortable.
But adventurous it's not... And you won't see much of anything... And wasn't that the point of the trip?

But I have no doubt you are right about seeing more.
My problem is that it would turn into a 5 year trip.

Now you're talking! In 5 years you can get a rough idea of 2,000 years of European history! But in 3/4 weeks on a boat? Forget it. You won't even scratch the surface.