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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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| 1) He was so chronically dissatisfied with his work any form of excitement was a welcome distraction. |
Maybe things can be a bit boring. But what is this in the Guardian?
An illegally trafficked, incredibly rare 2,000-year-old marble statue of a Greek goddess has been returned to Libya after a long-running repatriation case involving experts at the British Museum.
The well-preserved marble statue, dating from the second century BC and probably depicting Persephone, would have been fixed to a tomb in a cemetery in the ancient Libyan city of Cyrene. She has snake bracelets carved into her wrists and is holding a small doll, making it, the museum said, “one of the rarest of the Cyrenaican funerary statues”.
The museum first became involved in 2013 when UK customs asked for help in identifying the statue seized by Border Force officials at Heathrow airport.
Peter Higgs, a curator, recalled going to Heathrow and knowing straight away what it was and where it was from.
“It is stunning,” he said. “It is a beautiful, three-quarter-length statue, very well preserved with just a few fingers missing. It is technically brilliant in the way it has been carved, with very sharp details, and the face is very well preserved considering many Greek statues have lost noses." |
| “It is just lovely to be part of a story which has a happy ending,” said Higgs. “It will go back to Libya and stand in one of its museums as a star piece, it is a lovely feeling to be part of that.” |
Hartwig Fischer, the director of the British Museum, said: “An important part of the museum’s work on cultural heritage involves our close partnership with law enforcement agencies concerned with illicit trafficking.
“This case is another good example of the benefits of all parties working together to combat looting and protect cultural heritage”. |
Happier times........
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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This is the fabbest part of the whole gis-our-heritage-back movement. We fake the stuff in the First World, then provide it with a provenance by saying it's been looted from the Third World, so the Third World naturally demands its looted heritage back. The Oxus Treasure added a few wrinkles to the trade:
1. It is faked in the Third World (India)
2. For First World crooks in the Third World (British Indian Army soldiers)
3. It is sent to crooks in the First World (directors of the British Museum and V & A)
4. It is copied by competing crooks in the First World (the Louvre)
5. The (Third World) President of Tajikistan demands it back
6. The (First World) British Museum refuses but sends him some replicas
7. President puts them in the national museum
8. Et voila Tajikistan has some instant heritage
9. The (First World) Mick Harper points all this out
10. All the First World and Third World museums ignore him.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Just been reading a book by an archaeologist and right at the end it describes the state of the resting place of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
Two years before, on the Feast of the Guardian Angels 2008, an attempt was made to exhume Newman's remains. The plan was to translate his bones to a shrine in the Birmingham Oratory. However, nothing of Newman himself was found. The Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory released a statement:
"During the excavation the brass inscription plate which had been on the wooden coffin in which Cardinal Newman had rested was recovered from his grave. Brass, wooden and cloth artefacts were found. However, there were no remains of the body of John Henry Newman.
In the view of the medical and health professionals in attendance, burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition of the body unsurprising."
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Shades of St Cuthbert and his incorrupt remains. According to the Birmingham Daily Post, 1890, decomposition had been hastened by the addition of 'black earth' covering the coffin. Either way, according to the author, Richard Morris,
| The relics recovered from the attempted exhumation were a modest collection: the brass inscription that had been screwed to the coffin, some pieces of cloth and bits of coffin wood. | |
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I wonder if that is actually true. I can sort of understand why everyone would say it was but my instinct says it's a bunch of bollocks. Since Newman was different from St Cuthbert in actually existing, we are presented with rather more interesting questions: who half-inched the Cardinal's body, why and where is it now?
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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The senior archaeologist at Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Carl Thorpe, posted on Time Team's Facebook page about the Copplestone Cross
This monument is situated at a busy road junction on the A377 in the village of Copplestone, Devon. It is a boundary stone that marks the meeting place of 3 parishes, Crediton Hamlets, Down St. Mary and Colebrooke.
It is believed that the cross was raised in as a memorial to Bishop Putta who was murdered travelling between Crediton and Bishop's Tawton in AD 906. As a landmark, it was mentioned in a charter of King Eadger in AD 924 and also in a charter of AD 947 which described it as a boundary of an area known as the Nymed. |
TME replied
It is claimed that Copplestone Cross marks the exact centre of Devon. Either way, it's a fine example of a standing stone, reminiscent of Dartmoor's standing stones, converted to stone crosses by Benedictine monks. The stone's location, at a road intersection on a main coast-to-coast route (now the A377), suggests it was erected to function as a route marker, and perhaps a toll point.
No-one has been able to scientifically date the carvings, "thought to date from the tenth century" and there is no written reference to the Copplestone cross until the sixteenth century (in the Codex Wintoniensis, officially dated twelfth century, though regarded as 'a suspicious source', even 'full of lies', by a slew of manuscript scholars). The dating difficulty is compounded by not having similar carvings for comparison or context as, according to Historic England, 'the interlaced decoration is unique in Devon'. |
to which Carl responded
It is mentioned by name in two Anglo-Saxon Charters..
As a landmark, it was mentioned in a charter of King Eadger in AD 924 and also in a charter of AD 947.. |
He is simply repeating what other people have said, par for the course except that in this case there is no 'AD 924 charter' mentioning Copplestone and the later charter appeared out of the blue in 1870, as TME pointed out
There is a King Edgar charter granting 3 hides of land at Nymed, Devon, of 974 but it doesn't mention Copplestone. There appears to be only one charter mentioning Copplestone and claimed to be tenth century. However the charter's existence was unknown before 1870 when it was presented to the Public Record Office by a gentleman from Kent. The provenance of the charter cannot be traced.
The earliest record of the carvings are drawings dated 1876. |
Another contributor to the Time Team page even posted
| Wish we could preserve the original away from the weather. So much has been lost. |
It so happens Copplestone has a Church of St Boniface (Grade II listed), constructed 'circa 1870 and later C19' as a chapel of ease, later a church, in a 'Mixed Gothic'.style, according to the Historic England listing.
Might the architects have perhaps turned their attention to decorating Copplestone's famous landmark standing stone? This would appear to be a good example of nineteenth-century Gothic being somehow interpreted as tenth-century Anglo-Saxon carvings.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Stone stuff that cannot be explained tends to be grouped under the wood loving Anglo Saxons.
This really does not look like a cross.
It's a carved decorated square column with a niche at the top, best guess would be for a statue. I would imagine that the statue might have been the giveaway as to what it was.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Wiley's mention of the Bayeux Tapestry (in Coin) prompted me to wonder how and when Harold's death was known and who was commissioned to write about it. According to a sixty year-old article published in History Today, his death from an arrow in his eye was described not long after the Norman take-over
| The earliest description of Harold’s death occurs in the Gesta Normannorum Ducum by William of Jumièges, written in or about the year 1070, in which he says “Harold himself... fell covered with deadly wounds.” Later, between the years 1099 and 1102, Baudri, Abbot of Bourgueil, wrote a poem describing a piece of embroidery in which there was shown a scene of Harold’s death in battle, where—says Baudri—the King is killed by being struck in the eye by an arrow. |
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the earliest known manuscript of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum is 16th century and the poems Baudri (aka Baldric of Dol) are all (256 of them) in a single manuscript described as 'an authorised copy'. No date is given though the copious references to Classical writers, especially Ovid, seem closer to the 15/16th than the twelfth century.
Not a lot is known about the official chronicler, William of Jumièges, according to Wiki
| He is himself a shadowy figure, only known by his dedicatory letter to William the Conqueror as a monk of Jumièges. Since he also mentions that he was an eyewitness of some events from the reign of Duke Richard III (1026-7), it seems reasonable to assume that he was born some time about the year 1000. He probably entered the monastery during the first quarter of the eleventh century and received his education from Thierry de Mathonville. According to Orderic Vitalis, William's nickname was "Calculus". The meaning behind this nickname is unknown. His death, after 1070, is unrecorded. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Jumi%C3%A8ges
The lack of information about William has a parallel in the sorry state of the earliest extant manuscript of Gesta Normannorum Ducum ('Deeds of the Dukes of the Normans'), MS. Bodl. 517 in the Bodleian Library
In parts illegible and two leaves (fols 2b, 17) are mutilated, and probably several are lost
'Parts of thirty-three folios survive, and the losses included the first quire [...] a large initial in red and green at the start of book five has been partially excised |
Provenance: John Twyne of Canterbury (died 1581). Presented by Thomas Twyne in 1612.
https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_1542
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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Hatty's quote on the Copplestone Cross just caught my eye.
| a boundary of an area known as the Nymed. |
Anything "Nymed" in Devon is pre-Christian, maybe Druidic.
North Tawton in Devon is the most well-known, thanks to it being named by the Romans as Nemetostatio - "The Outpost of the Sacred Groves". Several modern placenames still contain Nymet or Nympton. There are several places in Devon with related names. Nymet, Nympton, Nemeton, etc.
Bishop's Nympton
Broadnymet
East Nymph and West Nymph
George Nympton
King's Nympton
Nymet Episcopi
Nymet Regis
Nymet Rowland
Nymet St.George
Nymet Tracey
Nymet in Plymouth
Nicholas Nymet
Nymetboghe, or Nymetbow, the site of the first henge (re)discovered in Devon, in 1984 by Frances Griffiths. A circular space about 184 in diameter with post holes, probably for a wooden henge like Woodhenge in Wiltshire. The Nymetboghe henge site, and several of these villages, are on a spur of red sandstone, slightly raised from the surrounding countryside, that runs from near Exeter towards Okehampton. As such, it would form a natural long-distance path on drier ground across the middle of Devon, north of Dartmoor.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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As for the Cross itself, the decoration makes me wonder if it looks like a Celtic Cross with the top circular bit knocked off.
Off the top of my knocked-about memory, the nearest other example I can think of might be St.Pirran's Cross.
St.Pirran's clickey link
| It is believed that the cross was raised in as a memorial to Bishop Putta who was murdered travelling between Crediton and Bishop's Tawton in AD 906. |
Usually we get told about some Saint or other that was busy killing the local dragons (druids). Perhaps this time the Nymet dragons fought back?
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| Boreades wrote: | Anything "Nymed" in Devon is pre-Christian, maybe Druidic.
North Tawton in Devon is the most well-known, thanks to it being named by the Romans as Nemetostatio - "The Outpost of the Sacred Groves". Several modern placenames still contain Nymet or Nympton. There are several places in Devon with related names. Nymet, Nympton, Nemeton, etc. |
Everyone is agreed that nymet means 'pagan grove' or some sort of pagan shrine without producing evidence for why they think so. The Roman fort of Nemetostatio first appears in medieval manuscripts, the supposedly seventh-century 'Ravenna Cosmography' having disappeared as per usual, and even then no-one seems to have known how to spell it
| There are just three surviving manuscripts dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, with marked variations in spelling, copying errors, and layout. |
It crossed my mind that nymet, and variants e.g. nemeton, may be a corruption of 'an emmet', emmet meaning tourist or non-native in Cornish dialect, like the modern term in Devon, 'grockle', coined in the 1950's.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You tell him, Hatty. He comes over here, thinks he knows it all, never got his knees brown. No, actually, better not, we are not so fecund with contributors that we can adopt an air of effortless superiority.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Hatty wrote: | | It crossed my mind that nymet, and variants e.g. nemeton, may be a corruption of 'an emmet', emmet meaning tourist or non-native in Cornish dialect, like the modern term in Devon, 'grockle', coined in the 1950's. |
I like that.
Or should I say
Arr, proper job, oi like tha'.
Explaining.
Was it places where strangers or visitors were welcome?
Pilgrims or travellers.
The curiosity is that other propose an East-West route, along the higher ground ridgeway. Except the locations of the Nymet places suggest the opposite, a North-South route. Here's the ones mostly in Devon, with a few in Somerset. Nempnett Thrubwell is my favourite. Perhaps he's a resting Shakespearian actor-manager?
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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I refer my honourable colleagues to the Devon Dowsers.
"Was-there-a-Celtic-Sanctuary-in-Mid-Devon" - clicky link
I feel AEL may have some affinity for the aforesaid Devon Dowsers. In so far as they are also accustomed to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. And scoffers who say dowsing cannot possibly work, despite the evidence that actually yes it bloody well does.
In this particular instance, the Devon Dowsers offer this:
Generally attributed to him, and following the canons of the council held under Carloman and Boniface in 742, number six of the practices condemned in the 8th century list of thirty superstitious and pagan practices, the Indiculus superstitionem et paganiarum was:
“of the sacred rites of the woods which they call ‘nimidas’.” |
Where is the AEL's copy of Indiculus superstitionem et paganiarum? Or any one's?
Their very next paragraph says:
| In ‘Devon’s Sacred Grove’ (Westcountry Folklore No.17), Dr. Angela Blaen writes about this and the interesting chapels in the vicinity that are, or were, dedicated to St Martin of Tours, who became famous in Christian countries thanks to the writings of his friend Sulpicius Severus. Martin was a lover of solitary places, particularly zealous in eliminating paganism and forcibly destroying pagan altars! |
I did know something about St Martin of Tours. Was it TME significant? It escapes me for the moment, I shall have to wait for enough neurons to realign and provide a memory. Or some more Proper Job to lubricate the proper pathway.
St. Austell's Proper Job is recommended as a bottle-conditioned beer that has the original yeast still in it.
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Boreades
In: finity and beyond
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| Mick Harper wrote: | | You tell him, Hatty. He comes over here, thinks he knows it all, never got his knees brown. No, actually, better not, we are not so fecund with contributors that we can adopt an air of effortless superiority. |
I must apologies to all for the abruptness of my reappearance amongst the AEL throng. M'Lady Boreades was away for the weekend. While I was unsupervised, I took the opportunity to get on the interweb and look at some of the websites she considers unsuitable. Just making up for lost time.
As a treat for special occasions, her dogs and I have had a good time as well. We all like Blue Stilton on crackers. When she gets back and asks "What have you been doing with those crackers?" I shall have to carefully intuit what context applies to "crackers". Lest she meant AEL.
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