I'm not a fan of cheese, but this made me smile - some really, really old cheese has been discovered in China, and it dates back to the Bronze Age.

Also archaeology-related: Newcastle University offers a series of Masterclasses, targeted at students, researchers and those working with artefacts. The Material Skills Masterclasses will run this June, so fairly soon - if you are interested, go check their website.

Also, the cat is watching. To make sure I do everything on the list today, of course. Not because she's speculating on something tasty... no.

Last November, a conference about why the world needs anthropologists took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. If that sounds at all interesting to you, here's more info about the conference, and here is a 4.5 hour video taken during the conference, so you can enjoy some of the talks. (h/t to Rainer Schreg at Archaeologik.)

The newest issue of Fornvännen (a Swedish archaeology magazine) is available online.

The archaeology museum in Cambridge has a Roman pot, decorated with art featuring penises, on permanent display - here's a short article about it, of course including pictures.

Finally, thanks to a new shelter, a rare 13th century tile floor is on display again at Cleeve Abbey in Somerset.

I have two links for you this morning - Doug from Doug's Archaeology has attended the conference about Computer Applications and Quantitative Measurements in Archaeology this March, and if you're interested in the presentations that were given, go visit his blog post - there are several videos of presentations from the conference.

More textile-related: Here's a blogpost from a conservation student about washing a 19th century embroidery sampler.

Also? Flowers!


These lovely buttercups hang out on the table in the wintergarden, spending all their effort on looking good. (Also, while looking up their English name, I just learned that they should not be handled extensively, as they can cause contact dermatitis in humans.)

Routledge is granting free access to their archaeology journals (everything after 1997) from today until April 17. The list of free journals (43 altogether) includes Medieval Archaeology, Journal of European Archaeology, and the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, so if you are interested in archaeology, it's definitely worth a look.

Access is possible via this page on Routledge - enjoy!

It's amazing how a few days can lead to a huge heap of emails in the inbox, and some increase of length of the to-do-list - but it was wonderful to have these few days off over Easter and spend time with friends as well as outside for some hiking.

Not only emails have piled up, though - there are also a few interesting links that came in during the last few days!

First of all, and very exciting - you might know that the Incans used textiles to keep records: khipus, which are strings marked with knots. The exact method of how these strings were knotted, and how to decipher them, are yet unknown. There's a little hope that this might change, though. In an excavation about 100 km south of Lima, archaeologists have found several khipus in a storage house, in some cases buried under the produce they were possibly documenting. Research on these khipus and how to decipher them is now going on, and the storage khipus might be helpful in deciphering the non-mathematical content of this very special type of textile records.

Also textile-related, but modern: There's a crowdfunding project for a business going on to bring a twisting machine to the Hebrides, helping knitters turn wool singles (spun for tweed weaving) into plied knitting yarns. If you decide to support this and get a reward, you might consider upping your pledge to account for shipping, as my suspicion is that shipping costs and reward materials will cut considerably in what is left after the campaign.

Now it's nose back to the grindstone, the cat is back on the desk "helping" (take your paw off the touchpad, please, little cat), and purring contentedly. Hm. Maybe she'll do some of the email sorting for me?

 

As an archaeologist, I get itchy when I see any original finds on sale anywhere. Itchy, and sometimes also a little bit angry, and always a good bit sad. Removing finds, taking them out of the soil, destroys irrevocally some knowledge that we could have gained about an area, a find spot, a development. This can be true even if they were stray finds that turn up on top of a field that had been ploughed.

Selling original artefacts supports the market for original artefacts. It does not matter where they come from, and it does not matter whether they are expensive or cheap, stray finds or not - everyone that buys or sells artefacts strengthens the market, and the stronger the market is, the more attention it gets, the more treasure hunters will go and try to find (and sell) stuff.

This destroys archaeological sites. It can even destroy more - such as this Roman bridge in Bulgaria that collapsed due to treasure hunters trying to find a gold treasure supposedly buried at or near the bridge.

I am out of words about this. Our world is one Roman bridge poorer because some people know no boundaries in their greed for treasure. Sometimes, I have a hard time to believe in humanity.

My dear friend and colleague Karina Grömer has done it again - she has a new book out:


K. Grömer (with contributions by Regina Hofmann-de Keijzer and Helga Rösel-Mautendorfer) 2016: The Art of Prehistoric Textile Making – The development of craft traditions and clothing in Central Europe.

Veröffentlichungen der Prähistorischen Abteilung 5, Verlag des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien, Vienna 2016.

The book is a compendium about the latest research about archaeological textiles in Central Europe (533 pages, more than 240 colour figures). There's a preview of this book, and other work that Karina did, available via academia.edu.

Copies of the book can be ordered via email to verlag@nhm‐wien.ac.at from the Verlag Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria.
The price for the book is 35€ (including VAT) plus shipping. According to the info on their order form, shipping should be 4.40 € for Austria and Germany, 8.80 € for Europe and 15 € for the rest of the world, with different costs possible for larger orders.

My copy is already on the way here - and I'm looking forward to adding it to my collection!