history
Plants and rocks at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. Pōneke.
The ancient art of barrel making, the work of a ‘Cooper’, has always fascinated me. One of many crafts we once relied on, but is now a rare and marginal skill. #mbnov #crafts
This book looks fascinating: The Oldest Living Things in the World (Rachel Sussman)📚
Matariki and the European Bronze Age
Aotearoa NZ is about to celebrate Matariki - the appearance of a constellation of stars that herald the Māori new year. New Zealand will have its first public holiday for Matariki this Friday 24 June.
Many cultures around the world and across history have used the Pleiades star cluster as calendrical markers.
As the recent book "The World of Stonehenge" (p145) notes, the Nebra Sky Disc (from Bronze-Age eastern Germany c1600BC) features this symbolism:
"There is a distinctive rosette of seven stars clustered between the full and the crescent moons. These are identified as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters (fig. 3.22), recognised by many world cultures as calendar stars, since they are last seen in the night sky in March and only reappear again in October."
"The Greek poet Hesiod, writing in c. 700 BC, noted that 'when the Pleiades rise it is the time to use the sickle, but the plough when they are setting'. Their disappearance and appearance has been seen historically a marker of the beginning and end of the farming year in Europe, and the Skidi Pawnee people of North America used these celestial markers as a sign to prepare rituals and ceremonies connected to the agricultural cycle. In the region of eastern Germany where the disc was found, the Pleiades is last seen in the sky on 10 March, alongside the young, crescent moon. The full moon accompanies the reappearance of the constellation on 17 October. On the disc, the Pleiades is tellingly placed between the crescent and full moons, suggesting an awareness of this celestial rhythm."
This is a fascinating connection between a prehistoric Bronze-Age world, and the resurgence of te ao Māori in contemporary Aotearoa.
Old Babylonian Survey tablet (Si.427)
An Australian mathematician, Dr Daniel Mansfield, has recently completed an analysis of an Old Babylonian (1900-1600 BC) Survey tablet (known as Si.427) from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Sippar. His analysis demonstrates the tablet includes a highly detailed survey plan, measured and drawn using Pythagorian trigonometry over a thousand years before Pythagoras. The tablet records land owned by Sîn-bêl-apli of Sippar, a “water-meadow”, and new land purchased. It is a remarkable insight into the complexity of life 3,700 years ago.
Links
In the video linked below, Dr Mansfield explains the content of the tablet: YouTube Video
A write-up of the analysis in the Conversation: How ancient Babylonian land surveyors developed a unique form of trigonometry 1000 years before the Greeks
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Item P128359 (aka Si.427)
Picture of the Survey Tablet (Si.427)
A picture of the obverse side of Si.427. Photograph by and courtesy of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
Books on Early Medieval England
Two new books on Early Medieval England. Quite apart from anything else, both are exquisite objects.
"The First Kingdom" - Britain in the Age of Arthur (Max Adams 2021)
Focuses on the two centuries after the end of the Western Roman Empire around 400AD. Explores the archeological, geographical and limited textual evidence for continuity and change in this period, and the emergence of new forms of political and social organisation in the post-Roman era. [LibraryCatalog]
"The Anglo-Saxons" - A History of the Beginnings of England (Marc Morris 2021)
Covers a longer period from the end of Roman Britain to the Norman Conquest of 1066AD. Draws on much recent scholarship, archeology and analysis, but also seeks to provide a coherent narrative for the era. The role of the church and religion, and state formation, are given prominence, as well as key individuals both ecclesiastical and royal. [LibraryCatalog]
Two new books...
Two new books arrived today. 📚
Both advance the notion that key philosophical ideas 'remade the world' - but advance completely opposite views of what that driver was. Tom Holland argues that Christianity is the defining underpinning of the modern world, while Stephen Greenblatt argues that it was the rediscovery of pre-Christian thinking in the renaissance that defined modernity.
Dominion - How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (Tom Holland, 2019)
The Swerve - How the World Became Modern (Stephen Greenblatt)
5 stars to Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization by Meredith F. Small 📚
River Kings: A New History of Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads 📚
An exciting new book arrived today, detailing some fascinating new bioarchaeological findings from the Viking ‘Great Army’ mass burial at Repton, UK. A carnelian bead identified connections between western and eastern Viking expansion, travel and trade.
Witi Ihimaera appearing as Tama-nui-te-rā in Taki Rua’s the world premier performance of “Navigating the Stars”, Soundshell, Botanical Gardens, Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Nunuku's cave petroglpyphs
Our first visit on 6 February was to Te Ana a Nunuku (Nunuku’s cave) and the petroglyphs (rock carvings) that can be found there, carved in bas relief over the top of an ancient cave mouth.
Our excellent guide Deborah Goomes indicated that tradition connects Nunuku’s cave with Nunuku-whenua, the Moriori chief who established ‘Nunuku’s Law’ which forbade war, cannibalism and murder.
The petroglyphs depict seals, birds, faces and other elements of Moriori culture and tradition.
Waitangi Day in Waitangi (the *other* Waitangi)...
The 6th of February is Aotearoa New Zealand’s national day - commemorating the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), which established British government over the islands, whilst retaining rangatiratanga (chieftainship) for iwi Māori. The Treaty has been largely honour in the breach… but things are improving.
The day was stunning.
Waitangi, Rēkohu
Waitangi is the main settlement of Rēkohu (Chatham Island / Wharekauri).
Hotel Chatham is the centre of all visitor activity. It's the main accomodation, and only restaurant and bar on the islands.
The Waitangi Store is the main grocery and supply store. Given the island’s population of 600, it's not large. It seems many people import their own goods directly.
Small towns make for interesting combinations. They also tell Sam’s life story (but not necessarily in that order…)
The petrol station and hardware store:
Rēkohu and Rangihaute visit (5-8 February 2021)
A group of friends and I visited Rēkohu (Chatham Island) and Rangihaute (Pitt Island) over Aotearoa New Zealand’s Waitangi weekend (5-8 February 2021). These islands are the most remote part of Aotearoa, 800km east of Te Waipounamu (South Island).
The islands boast stunning natural landscapes of considerably diversity, while their cultural history is equally diverse, tragic and fascinating. Ancestral home of the Moriori, famous for their pacifist culture, rākau momori (dendroglyph tree carvings), and sadly the devastating impact of contact and colonisation by both Europeans and mainland Māori.
In the next few posts I’ll put up pictures of our trip, but I wanted to provide some context for what was a truly fascinating experience.
Below is a picture of the western coast of Rēkohu, north of the main settlement of Waitangi.
"The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in the Late Iron Age Scandinavia"
Neil Price (Oxbow Books 2013), 2nd Edition, 432 pages, hardback.
I have waited for this book for years - and now its here! What a tome. . .
mbnov
“Landscape and Memory" by Simon Schama made a huge impression on me when it first came out in 1995. It still resonates today. A masterwork of history and sociology. #mbnov
LibraryThing Catalog Entry
This book pretty much is everything about me at the moment … #books #sheep #history #life #work #farming
A new book 📚 for the new library 📚 from a new bookshop 📚 #library #books #wellingtonnz #bookshop #nzbooks #nzbookshopday2020 @goodbookshopnz
"The Madman's Library" - The strangest books, manuscripts and other literary curiosities from history (Edward Brooke-Hitching, 2020)
