The View From Kalamazoo

Yes, I’m so very behind in tracking news and posting here. I was barely online at all for the last two weeks or so – either away with no computer, or away and faced with dialup. I survived intact, so let’s chalk this up as another year I don’t have to join Bloggers Anonymous.

NOTE: The story link I posted previously on the Massa Marittima mural didn’t have images – check this one to see portions of the mural.

For all playing along at home, surgery is set for Feb. 15. Please do not storm the Medieval Institute with teeming masses of shouting villagers waving torches and pitchforks until after that date, thanks. And I will edit the photos of the ceramics from last term very soon – holidays are never as long as I’d like, nor as devoid of running around and visiting to allow me to get half of what I’d like to do, done. So save your nagging. Please.

In the news the last few weeks:
Archaeologists are awaiting confirmation they have unearthed what has been hailed as a “major” discovery – the first Roman chariot-racing track in Britain.

The bloodbath at Brunanburh in 937 AD was fought by King Athelstan when he united the Anglo-Saxons for the first time to fight off a Viking invasion…research claims that the site of the battle mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was on what is now a golf course in Bebington, Wirral.

State-of-the-art forensic techniques have been used to reconstruct the face of an Anglo-Saxon woman who had similar status to a modern princess. You know, I love this stuff – maybe, had I the information then that I have now, I might have more seriously considered forensic anthro/arch with emphasis on forensic facial recon with skulls…I used to love sculpting portrais in bust, did it in high school, and even in my beginning sculpture class as a freshman art major lo those many years ago. But I thought it was a field even less flush with opportunities and possibilities than medieval hist…silly me. *snark*

So then, it should be no surprise that Time Team is one of my favorite ways to waste time in front of the blowing electric altar: The remains of a medieval pottery kiln were found in the newly-excavated footings at the site in Bancroft.

They used that stuff in contraception? I should contact this guy, since magical ‘contraception’ has been a topic favorite of mine…

Medieval villagers ‘passed human TB on to their cattle’

Women warriors from Amazon fought for Britain’s Roman army.

Harry Potter and Winnie the Pooh in Latin watch out for ol’ Pete: Beatrix Potter’s classic children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit has been translated into ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by the British Museum.