 Previous 50 | Showing 151-166 of 166 posts. Most recent first
Making History: Antiquaries In Britain, 1707-2007
15 Sep—2 Dec 2007. Main Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
"This exhibition explores the work and achievement of the Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of London since its foundation in the early eighteenth century to the present day.
"It features works of art, antiquities and manuscripts of unique historical importance, such as a processional cross of King Richard III and his defeated Yorkist army recovered from the battlefield of Bosworth (1485). Also on show will be the earliest known medieval manuscript illustrations of Stonehenge,* as well as drawings and paintings of this and other historic sites and monuments by great artists such as Constable, Turner, Girtin and Blake."**
* The 15th century Scala Mundi manuscript?
** More at http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/makinghistory/ and http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/makinghistory/charles-hamilton-smith-the-grand-conventional-festival-of-the-britons-1815,450,AR.html
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Not a fortress, or a temple, or a calendar. Stonehenge was a hospital
"By the agrarian revolution of the third millennium BC Stonehenge was already an important site, but its extension about 2300BC was clearly intended by its guardians to make it a major pilgrimage attraction. This needed some sensational draw, and what could be more sensational than a henge composed of the fabled Preseli bluestones, fount of a hundred holy wells? It was worth any Olympian expense.
The medieval historian Geoffrey of Monmouth told of a belief in the healing power of Stonehenge's stones, brought by Arthur's magician, Merlin, "from Ireland", where stones have long had magic properties. Geoffrey's stories are ridiculed, but his folk memory might contain a grain of truth. Could the appeal of the bluestones lie not in ancestor worship or astronomical ritual but in the power these objects were thought to hold back in Preseli? In his new book, Stonehenge: Biography of a Landscape, Darvill points out that the arrangement of the stones at Stonehenge even reflects their geological location back in Wales."
More at - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1961517,00.html
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Ancient Britain in its European Context (AHOB 2)
"The second phase of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project (AHOB) is funded to run until 2010, thanks to a grant by the Leverhulme Trust. The project, which started in October 2001, has made groundbreaking discoveries dating human occupation of Britain back as far as 700,000 years. Phase two of the AHOB project (AHOB2) will continue to add data on the earliest human colonisations of Britain, but the project will also carry out more comparative studies in continental Europe.
The first year of the AHOB2 project will include an attempt to recover DNA from a fragment of jawbone found at Kent's Cavern in Devon. This will help determine whether it is a modern human as previously believed, or a late Neanderthal. With a newly estimated date of 35,000, this fossil lies right at the time when modern humans could have first encountered the Neanderthals in western Europe."
More at -
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/ahob/index_2.html
and info on phase 1 of the AHOB project at -
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/ahob/AHOBI/index_2.html
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A three-year-old from 3.3m years ago
Today's Guardian reports on the discovery of the bones of a three-year-old from 3.3m years ago.
"Fossil hunters working in Ethiopia have unearthed the fragile bones of a baby ape-girl who lived 3.3m years ago, the earliest child ancestor discovered so far.
The fossilised remains reveal a critical moment in human evolution that saw our earliest relatives shaking off the legacy of ape ancestors to take their first tentative steps along a path that ultimately led to modern humans.
The remarkably complete skeleton's lower half is almost perfectly adapted to walking upright, while the upper body is more primitive, with gorilla-like shoulderblades and curved chimpanzee-like fingers suited to clinging and climbing trees.
The intact skull and nearly full set of teeth show the large, pointy canines that distinguish apes from early humans have disappeared, leaving only substantial chewing teeth."*
* More at -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1877236,00.html
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Humans in Britain 700,000 years ago
"New research shows early humans were living in Britain around 700,000 years ago, substantially earlier than previously thought. Using new dating techniques, scientists found that flint tools unearthed in Pakefield, Suffolk, were 200,000 years older than the previous oldest finds."*
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4526264.stm"
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Four thousand year-old structure found in Russia
Two years ago Russian archaeologist Ilya Akhmedov made a sensational discovery; he found an ancient structure 'resembling' Stonehenge near the site of the ancient settlement of Staraya Ryazanin in the village Spasskaya Luka.
Source http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/15764_stonehenge.html
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Stone head found in Hampshire
"A retired fisherman has discovered an ancient stone head which experts say could be 24,000 years old - the oldest found in Britain." The five-inch stone head was found off Long Island in Hampshire and according to archaeologists could be a piece of Neanderthal art. "A similar stone head was found in a Neanderthal cave in northern France and was dated back to 28,000 BC."
Full story and photo appear on page 7 of The Times, 2 October 2004.
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Previous 50 | Showing 151-166 of 166 posts. Most recent first
Studied art and design at Swindon School of Art, Wiltshire, England and afterwards Japanese painting and calligraphy at Kyoto University of Fine Arts, Kyoto, Japan.
In 1966 I was a lay monk at the Zen Buddhist temple of Ryozen-an in Kyoto and practiced under the guidance of its Director, Ruth Fuller-Sasaki and senior monk Dana R Fraser (co-translator of Layman P'ang: A Ninth Century Zen Classic).
Also present at Ryozen-an was the author and poet Gary Snyder. Gary Snyder was one of the first Westerners in Japan to study Zen Buddhism and was the inspiration for Jack Kerouac's book, The Dharma Bums.
I was assistant conservator (paintings) at Kyoto National Museum from 1969-1980 and Chief Conservator (Eastern Pictorial Art) at the British Museum from 1980-1986. Japan Foundation Fellow 1973-1974 and Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works since 1985.
Interests include ancient history, classical music, comparative religion, the fine arts, poetry and writing.
Home: North Yorkshire, ENGLAND
weblogs:
Avebury Matters http://aveburymatters.blogspot.com/
Megalithic Poems http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/
Silbury
http://silbury-hill.blogspot.com/
The moral right of the author with regard to text, illustrations and photographs has been asserted.
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