Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history

Just watched the second episode in Scared Britain, which I am enjoying immensely- but they got something important wrong- and it annoys me.

They were in the English fens discussing the bronze and early iron age practises of putting expensive and prestigious items into the water (more than 300 items from one excavated area- so clearly they weren't just dropping them by accident).

However the summing up of what they were doing was -marking a border- where land meets water.

Now it might seem a bit rich for an armchair historian like myself to accuse two archaeologists who have made the period their life work (and it is) but I do have practical shaman experience- and that's where I learned the importance and significance of such places- and its not a bloody border.
Its a transition zone- what they were interested, fascinated, revered and even fearful for were transitions.

So dusk and dawn are 'magical times' because they are neither day nor night but something inbetween, beaches are important because land meets water but fens and bogs and marshes are crucial- as there land and water become indistinguishable. There is no way to tell by looking if any bit of them is safe solid ground or potential watery death.

Its not borders that are of interest its transitional zones, its places in the world which are neither one thing or another but a blending- at these places different worlds collide (hence the association with such places not just with offerings but with the ancestors and with spirits in general)- they are gaps in the world, points where the world is not one or the other and stuff can get through.
And I feel the archaeologists should really know that and I was surprised they did not and instead went on about marking borders between land and water (so close but missing the significance of the place).

Picture taken by the Mars Rover- thats us that is, all of us, everyone you've every known, everywhere you've ever seen all there on that tiny dot.



I am never sure which emotion is strongest when I see something like that- awestruck at the scale and wonder and delicacy of it all, or a nagging feeling that we are so insignificant we are probably certainly fucked and doomed and chances are the universe wouldn't even notice if we were any more than when the dinosaurs went extinct on that tiny little blue speck.

I have often talked to people about going out in to space... like one of the these Virgin galactic trips in their future forms... and I am always surprised at how many people say they don't want to do it and that it wouldn't make any difference to their lives.

Seeing something like that in a picture but seeing it with your eyes is something else entirely. I think it would be a life changing thing for a lot of people.

Funny that Petty, I think like you but, the other way round. Ideas pop in my head whenever I see a beautiful full moon. I mean a REALLY full moon, were you could JUST touch it, & the light is so bright it nearly feels warm.

I think it would be a life changing thing for a lot of people.- Lance

I agree. I think it would be hard not to be struck by the fragility of it all- which you can realise from pictures intellectually, but not see and feel in every fibre as you would were you there looking back.

"Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of human footprints outside of Africa, on the Norfolk Coast in the East of England.
The footprints are more than 800,000 years old and were found on the shores of Happisburgh.
The Happisburgh footprints are the only ones of this age in Europe and there are only three other sets that are older, all of which are in Africa.

"They appear to have been made by one adult male who was about 5ft 9in (175cm) tall and the shortest was about 3ft. The other larger footprints could come from young adult males or have been left by females. The glimpse of the past that we are seeing is that we have a family group moving together across the landscape."

One suggestion is that they were a species called Homo antecessor, which was known to have lived in southern Europe. It is thought that these people could have made their way to what is now Norfolk across a strip of land that connected the UK to the rest of Europe a million years ago. They would have disappeared around 800,000 years ago because of a much colder climate setting in not long after the footprints were made.

It was not until 500,000 years ago that a species called Homo heidelbergensis lived in the UK. It is thought that these people evolved into early Neanderthals some 400,000 years ago. The Neanderthals then lived in Britain intermittently until about 40,000 years ago - a time that coincided with the arrival of our species, Homo sapiens.- BBC

Great Petty, like all that kind of stuff   

Is that real ? Shame if it is

I'm pretty sure that's real Chris.

Hopefully I'll be there briefly in october, I'll let you know.

Not hang gliding off them, by any chance?  

I wish.

I'm still hoping Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad will prove the best tour guide. In that case you hand a couple of helpful ruffians some baksheesh and they haul you to the top of a pyramid, jumping up each stone block then yanking you up by your arms behind them.

I understand this practice is now frowned upon, and there are no more ascents. I'm glad I made it to the pyramids in Tiahuanaco in Mexico before they banned tourists ascents there.

I climbed the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan south of Mexico City when I was 18. That was my first international trip without parental units.  
I was on top of the World! 

Pyramid of the Sun 



From the top of Pyramid of the Sun looking back towards Pyramid of the Moon

Pettytyrant101 wrote:"Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of human footprints outside of Africa, on the Norfolk Coast in the East of England.
The footprints are more than 800,000 years old and were found on the shores of Happisburgh.
The Happisburgh footprints are the only ones of this age in Europe and there are only three other sets that are older, all of which are in Africa.

Every time we get a new discovery about early man/hominids it just drives home how little we know about that stage of human evolution. I hope we're able to get a clearer picture within my lifetime since I find it fascinating, though.

halfwise wrote:Hopefully I'll be there briefly in october, I'll let you know.

You can see them from the highway, so it's real enough This is likely what you'll see, though:





I was there 3-4 years ago, and it's all very impressive, but the effect is ruined somewhat by all the people. Still well worth a visit

Look different close up dont they ?, the last one is, a bee covered in pollen

I used to be in charge of an electron microscope. Spent many hours taking closeups like that just for the hell of it. Pre-dated wasting time on the internet, and a hell of a lot more fun.

fascinating little creatures Bees. I think Bees ans spiders are my favorite insects.

halfwise wrote:I used to be in charge of an electron microscope.  Spent many hours taking closeups like that just for the hell of it.  

THAT sounds like a cool job!    


We have several varieties of native bees (not to mention wasps and hornets  ) and we rent hives of bees during bloom for greater pollination. They truck them up from California almond orchards for a month's vacation in the Northwest.  I'm mostly good friends with them. When I'm working in the bog during bloom on a sunny day, there are a million bees all around me for acres and acres, and there's a soft, warm, rumbley buzz that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. I just imagine I'm another worker bee and work among them.  It's a cozy sound, like being part of a giant purring cat laying in a sunny spot.  

But some people have been known to freak out.... especially when a bee gets inside your clothing or tangled in you hair or beard... 

You paint a lovely picture Dave !   I can imagine the sound of the hum around you. Id love to keep Bees if I lived more rural. Just not the right setting here. Half the dimwits here would only attack anything I had with a giant can of "fly spray" or whatever.

hmm inside clothing is not so good.   but it sounds like you are in Beorns Bee garden   

Mrs Figg wrote:it sounds like you are in Beorns Bee garden   

Fortunately our bees aren't that big!   

If they do crawl inside my trousers without my noticing, I'll feel that awkward tickle and start calmly disrobing to let them escape. That's when it can get a bit awkward.

They can literally smell fear, so if you get tense and start to exude a fear pheromone you'll feel the bee start to get anxious too.

There's a defensive buzz that's higher and louder than the purr sound, and when you feel it against your private places, it's time to reach down calmly and pinch the poor scared bee out of existence.  

Panic swatting just makes things worse. Sometimes much worse....

ugh I wouldnt like to pinch a bee, I think I would just panic and run around screaming like a big girl.